Learn Sign Language With Our Very Own Michael Thai!

Chapter member Michael Thal is offering an American Sign Language (ASL) course for beginners starting Tuesday, February 6, 2018 from 6:00-7:00 PM to be held at 18344 Clark Street #205, Tarzana, CA. The course costs $15 per class for 11 classes; the first class is free. If you pay up front, you will save $50, costing you only $100. Don’t miss out on a great opportunity to learn sign language! Even if you miss the first class, you are welcomed to join any class.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• ASL Alphabet

• Counting from 1-30 on one hand

• Basic vocabulary: family, colors, food, prepositions, pronouns, verbs, etc.

• Deaf Culture

• Baby Sign

• Any words you need for work or home

If you’d like to reserve a space, please email Michael Thal at michaelthal@sbcglobal.net.

Space is limited. You can also text only at 818-398-1805.

LA Cochlear Implant Group Meeting – January 20

LOS ANGELES COCHLEAR IMPLANT SUPPORT GROUP- LA CIS GROUP Meeting: Saturday, January 20, 2018, 11:00am to 2:00pm.  

(Important Note: If you plan on attending this meeting, consider adding extra travel time. The Women’s March is in central Downtown L.A. that day. Last year, freeways and subways were jam packed.)

Hello everyone,

Happy New Year! We hope your holidays were especially happy ones, with some memorable CI moments. We will celebrate our annual Cochlear Americas “Ringing in the New Year” meeting, and social.

The Newswire has been delayed due to some changes that have taken place. St. Vincent Hospital has been sold, and is now called: St. Vincent Medical Center—Verity Health System. We will no longer be able to have our meetings at the Mark Taper Building Board Room. It was demolished.

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Self Identifying Seat Belt Covers!

Cochlear Seat BeltDuring our chapter meeting, Nancy Gray brought an interesting item and idea to share. It is something you can put on your seat-belt that would identify you as deaf, hard-of-hearing, a cochlear implant user, etc…you can customize the text to say whatever you’d like it. Nancy also included her “In Case of Emergency” as an example of what further you can do to customize.

She bought it from the Cochlear Apparel store on Etsy.com (no affiliation to Cochlear Americas). Here’s the link: Cochlear Apparel Store.

Thanks for sharing, Nancy!

Tim’s 2016 HLAA National Convention Experience – Perseverance and Career Success

HLAA National Convention 2016(From Tim Browning – HLAA-LA Steering Committee member)

This was my first time at the HLAA National Convention held in Washington D.C. and what an experience it was! This was the first convention I’ve attended that didn’t include worries and concerns about what information am I going to miss, can I communicate with others effectively, and will the effort just to hear wear me down over time! With everyone at the convention sharing the same struggles and experiences I’ve had, it was an empowering experience but took time to realize.

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How to Closed Captions Your Facebook Videos!

3 Play MediaInteresting announcement came out recently, shared by our own Ken Clusky, on how to add your own closed captioning to Facebook videos. Link is below the will take you to the how-to guide to do this!

5 Reasons Why You Should Caption Your Facebook Videos
  1. Videos get more impressions on the newsfeed than any other type of post.
  2. Facebook videos auto-play on mute, so captions are needed to let the viewer follow along.
  3. Captions make your video accessible to all users, from a deaf viewer to someone on a noisy train or a quiet library.
  4. Subtitles in other languages make your video accessible to international viewers.
  5. Closed captions are proven to increase engagement and watch-time.

Here is the link to the how-to guide.

Captioning Your Facebook Videos

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