Bloggers Unite for People with Disabilities: Attitude

Posted on July 25th, 2010 by DeafMom

People First image

It’s funny, I don’t consider myself disabled– that is, on most days.  Then every now and then, life will knock me upside the head and remind me that I can’t access the world sometimes.

I was born with hearing in the so-called “normal” range.  I know I started losing some hearing when I was in kindergarten, because I remember climbing into bed and asking Dad to repeat the story of Scamp, the scraggly little dog that went on adventures all over town.  All of a sudden, I was missing bits and pieces of the story.  I was outfitted with a single hearing aid at the age of nine, but the contraption often ended up on a shelf after school and disappeared during the summer.  I got by with lipreading and some impressive social bluffing skills.    When I was nineteen, I went from hard of hearing to deaf in an instant– I fell while barefooting and climbed into the boat deaf.

Sometimes it’s hard for people to believe me when I say that becoming deaf was the best thing that ever happened to me.  The bluffing skills went to the wayside and I picked up American Sign Language.  I worked at a Center for Independent Living and met people with disabilities from all over.  The very best thing that I learned was this:  Attitude is everything.

When we have an attitude of acceptance, equality and access, then we see the whole person, instead of just a disability.   Jo Waldron says it best when she says, “Attitude is the worst barrier of all.”

I generally find that most people have an open attitude when they meet me and we have to do a communication dance– I have to figure out how to lipread them and they have to figure out how to slow down and face me.  Once we get that dance coordinated, access usually follows.  The same thing happens with websites– sometimes I will ask for a transcript for a video or captions and folks are usually willing to follow up with some kind of access.  Eventually… someday… I hope for full internet access.  The passage of H.R. 3101 and S. 3304 would enable a step toward this access.

Today, bloggers from all over are uniting for people with disabilities.  Take a look at the posts and join the conversation.  Then take a look at your website and determine if it’s accessible for folks with disabilities.  If you need an accessiblity guru, connect with Glenda Watson Hyatt, she works miracles with her left thumb.

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Tags: Advocacy efforts // 2 Comments »

The Honor of Attending a Water Birth

Posted on July 24th, 2010 by DeafMom

I was sitting on the couch up in Michigan when the phone rang. It was 10:30 p.m.

“It’s your friend,” said my Dad.  “She’s in labor and wants you to come now.”

I grabbed my bag and jumped in the car.  It was a two hour drive to Mary Kate’s house, but I shaved off some time with a heavy foot and no traffic to deal with.  I didn’t want to miss the birth.  Mary Kate and I had met on a homebirth forum online and became friends.  We both had birthed our first two kids via cesarean and I had homebirthed my third kiddo.  Mary Kate asked me to be a doula for her home water birth and I was looking forward to supporting her during the birth.

When I arrived, Mary Kate’s labor had slowed down.  “I’m going to head to the food store and get a few things,” I said.  I figured we might be in for a long night and I decided to make some dinners for after the birth.  I started a pot of soup and a roast.  Mary Kate’s surges would come and go and she did a beautiful job of breathing through them.  “Get as much sleep as you can,” I said.  I settled in on the couch for a few hours of sleep.

Kyle, Mary Kate’s husband woke me up early in the morning.  Mary Kate’s parents arrived to pick up the boys and take them to their house.  Once the boys left, labor started to kick in.  Kyle started filling up the water birth tub so that Mary Kate could labor in it.   Before she stepped in, she was holding on to Kyle and she said, “I can’t do this anymore.”

Instantly, my instincts kicked in and I knew that labor was progressing.  “Do you want to call the midwife now?” I asked.

“No, not yet,” Mary Kate said.  “I don’t want her to come too early.”

Mary Kate sank into the tub and Kyle and I took turns supporting her.  The labor picked up more intensely and I told Kyle that I thought it was time to call the midwife.  He went off to call her and I continued to support Mary Kate.  When Kyle returned, we switched places and I noticed that the baby had moved down.

“Mary Kate, your baby is moving down,” I said.

She was in denial.  It was hard for her to believe that after two cesareans, she was going to be able to birth her baby.  I looked at Kyle.  “Do you want to catch or do you want me to catch?”

“I’ll catch,” he said.

A few minutes later, the midwife walked in.  She assessed Mary Kate and said that she was ready to push.  I went to grab the camera and videocamera.

Ten years ago on this day, Maeve slipped into the water and Mary Kate brought her up to snuggle on her chest.  It was a moment that I’ll always remember– the dawn of a new day and a new soul arriving in this world.  Happy Birthday, Maeve!

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Tags: Uncategorized // Add Comment »

The Ghost at Christie Lake

Posted on July 22nd, 2010 by DeafMom

From the time I was seven, I spent my summers at Christie Lake, a small lake located in Lawrence, Michigan. On the weekends, I would go up to the lake with my friend Chris, whose family owned a cottage. Most of our days were spent lazing on the water in the inner tube or zipping around in her father’s boat.

One summer day when I was eleven, my parents and my older brother came up for the day. We were cruising around the lake and my brother noticed a “For Sale” sign planted in front of a cute, green cottage.

“Come on,” my brother said, “Let’s just go inside and take a look. It won’t hurt to see how much it is.”

The next thing I knew, we were unpacking suitcases inside the cute, green cottage. My parents had placed an offer that very day and purchased the place.

While getting to know the new next-door-neighbors, we learned about the previous occupants of the home. The original owners were Mr. and Mrs. Eberhart and their two sons. Mrs. Eberhart had a reputation of being a rather tart lady and Mr. Eberhart often meekly complied with her demands.

One day, the combination proved to be a fatal one. A storm was brewing and it had started to rain. Mrs. Eberhart turned to her husband and insisted that the boat needed to be covered.  Mr. Eberhart protested as there was lightning in the distance.

He didn’t win.

He and his son headed out in the storm to cover the boats. As the rain pelted down, they were suddenly both struck by lightning.

Mr. Eberhart lost his life as he fell into the boat.

After a few years, Mrs. Eberhart and her sons moved away and sold the cottages to another family, who in turn, sold it to us.

Hearing the story sent chills through me, but I didn’t give it another thought. My sister and I eagerly unpacked our things in the room we shared. In the bedroom, we discovered an unusual closet with two doors. One door was at eye level and the other door was high up near the ceiling. We had to get a step stool to reach the upper door and found it difficult to open. We stuffed a sleeping bag inside that closet and went off to explore the rest of the cottage.
We spent many wonderful summers at the lake.  At night time, I wasn’t too crazy about the room that my sister and I shared. It was dark and paneled in pine, with a single lamp illuminating the darkness. I didn’t like
falling asleep there, especially late at night.  I always felt as if someone else was in the room with me.

Every now and then, we would have a guest and have to get out the sleeping bag. This was no easy task, as the upper closet door was often hard to open.  A chair was required to reach the latch and it would take some tugging to get the closet door to budge.

One night, while heading to the bathroom, I noticed that the upper closet door was ajar. I shrugged it off, thinking that someone grabbed the sleeping bag after I had gone to sleep and simply left the door open.

The next morning, I woke up and noticed that the closet door was closed. I looked around and observed that no one had used a sleeping bag the night before.

Hmmm, I thought to myself, I must have been dreaming.

During a few more occasions, the same thing happened. I started to wonder if perhaps Mr. Eberhart was actually around.

Oh come on, Karen, I mumbled to myself.  Of course, I didn’t believe in ghosts. How silly.

Fast forward, many years later, and my parents hauled away the cute little cottage to the other side of town. They built their brand new retirement home on the same land.
One evening, my father and I were watching TV and he casually turned to me and asked, “Karen, do you believe in ghosts?”

Startled, I looked at him in surprise. “What do you mean?”

So Dad went on to explain how at night, he would hear strange noises. He would often get up to check, and find nothing. There were many nights he felt that someone was in the house. He could hear the stairs creaking as if someone was walking up.

But no one was there.

So I told him about the closet door and how I would find it wide open at night.  Just at that moment, my sister walked into the room.

“What are you guys talking about?”

We filled her in, and to my utter surprise, she said, “Oh yea, I remember seeing the closet open at night too. It was really weird, because in the morning it was closed. I always figured you closed it.”

And I had always figured she had closed it!

Hmmm. We looked at each other and we all burst out laughing. We figured that Mr. Eberhart was living with us all those years.

He must still be mad at his wife for sending him out in the storm.

Fast forward to this summer. Two weeks ago, the radio in my boat kept turning on. We thought the kids were leaving it on but they vehemently denied even touching the radio. Joe replaced the cables on the battery that week and I had taken the boat to a mechanic for some repairs. We thought maybe the wiring was loose or the rocking of the boat had turned on the radio.

Last Friday, I took my Mom and sister for a boat ride in the evening. When we arrived back at the dock, I made sure everything was turned off, including the radio. I climbed on to the pier and I was talking with my Mom, when suddenly, a light caught my eye.

The radio turned on.

I nudged my Mom. “Take a look, Mom! The radio is on! You just saw me turn everything off!”

We took one look at each other, then at the boat, and we burst out laughing.

I guess Mr. Eberhart has a sense of humor turning a radio on for a deaf family.

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Tags: Christie Lake Adventures // 1 Comment »

Hey, Slow It Down, Girl

Posted on July 21st, 2010 by DeafMom

Every once in a while, life hands over a slap upside the head.  This weekend was one of those moments when life said, “Hey, slow it down, girl.”

I left for Michigan with the boys in tow.  Lauren was down in Texas with Sarah and Joe was still working.  The boys let me enjoy my mellow music on the way up while they buried their heads in the laptop.  There wasn’t much talking on the way up, we were decompressing from a busy week.  Heck, make that a busy summer.  The kids were off in three directions most of the time with Mom on a plane the other half of the time.  I vaguely remembered a husband somewhere in all this.

On the way up, I thought about my Dad and the ups and downs since his diagnosis of esophageal cancer last summer.  Last November, we celebrated with good news:  Dad had kicked the cancer on its rear end.

A few weeks ago, he found a new lump.  At first, the doctor wasn’t too concerned, he figured it was benign.  Dad went for a PET scan and he was waiting for the results the morning we arrived.

Dad was sitting in his chair when we arrived and after a hug, we cut to the chase.  “Well, the results aren’t good,” Dad said.  “The tests show that the cancer is back and one tumor is heading toward the lungs.  But the good news is, it’s still small.”

So another round of chemo is coming up and Dad is determined to extend another kick into cancer’s rear end.  I’m buoyed by his optimism and his outlook and I know he has the strength to withstand anything.  The other tough blow over the weekend was the news that both of my brother’s have Barrett’s, which means they’re at an increased risk, but with diet, exercise and monitoring, they can kick this too.

All of this which had me thinking about how life goes by crazy fast– and I thought back to a friend’s recent remark about how I seemed to have it all together and have achieved a balanced life. “You need to teach me how you are able to travel, write a book, go barefooting with the world’s champions, and advocate for causes to change the world for the better,” she wrote.

After laughing hysterically, I informed her that my life was actually an unbalanced washing machine on a lopsided spin cycle.

So every now and then, when life slaps us upside the head, that’s when we slow down and pay attention to the stuff that matters:  the relationships we have with those around us and the stuff that brings us joy instead of sorrow.   One friend reminded me to celebrate the fact that we were given a gift of time since Dad’s diagnosis last year.  So I’m thankful that I get to wrap my arms around my parents each time I visit them.

So, over the weekend, I slowed it down.  I bonded with the boys as we floated in the lake after tubing.  I went shopping with my Mom, sis and a neighbor and we gathered some healthy food for the weekend.  I watched Two and Half Men with Dad and told him about my barefooting and wakeboarding adventures of the day.

Don’t wait for life to slap you upside the head.

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Tags: Christie Lake Adventures // 5 Comments »

Karen Putz Chosen as a “Hidden Pearl”

Posted on July 15th, 2010 by DeafMom

I’m proud to be among 20 amazing Deaf women chosen as “Pearls” by The M Project:

The Pearls, by The M Project

Next year, June 4, 2011, I will have to the opportunity to meet them all in Studio City, California.  I’m looking forward to getting to know these amazing gals!

“Is a jewel just a pebble, that found a way to shine?”  –John Denver

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Tags: Uncategorized // 5 Comments »

Old Lady, Judy Myers, Qualifies for Worlds

Posted on July 12th, 2010 by DeafMom

Earlier this year, 67-year-old  Judy Myers decided that she wanted to qualify enough points in barefoot waterskiing to compete in the World Barefoot Championships in Brandenberg, Germany in August. To qualify, she needed to score 500 points in a tournament.

Dubbed the “old Lady” of barefooting, Judy has the skills of someone much younger.  She can barefoot backwards and on one foot, and earlier this spring, she mastered the tumble turn.  Back in March, I sat in the boat and watched her spin around on the water–thinking to myself– I want to learn that!

“So, why do we call you ‘Old Lady?’” Keith St. Onge asked Judy after viewing this photo of her in the boat during a practice run.  “You look like a little kid living your dream back there!”   Judy works for Keith at the World Barefoot Center and when she’s not working, she spends her time footin’ on the water.

In tournament after tournament this year, Judy came close, scoring 450 points.  She decided to add a backwards flying start to her tricks to get her over the 500 mark:

After a couple of unsuccessful starts, Judy IM’d me on Facebook: “They’re building me a tower for tomorrow’s tournament.”

Robbie Groen, a barefooter from New Zealand suggested this solution to Judy.  Sure enough, David Small from the World Barefoot Center and a friend went to work and built an 8-foot platform out of scaffolding and plywood right before the tournament.

“Oh my gosh,” I wrote. “You weren’t kidding that they were actually thinking of tossing a 67-year-old gal off a tower for some points!”

“No, I am jumping off willingly,” Judy said.  “See what happens when you get old and you start to lose your marbles!”

The next day, Judy did indeed jump off that tower and scored 550 points!  She’s heading off to Germany in August. Way to go, Judy!

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Tags: Christie Lake Adventures, People You Should Know // 4 Comments »

ZVRS Reveals VRS with iPhone4

Posted on July 8th, 2010 by DeafMom

Over 200 folks gathered at the Hard Rock Cafe in Philadelphia on July 7, 2010 for a private event hosted by ZVRS. Tim Rarus took the stage and talked about the history of video relay service. “In the old days before the TTY,” he explained, “if you wanted to make an appointment with your doctor, you either had to find a neighbor to make a phone call or drive to the doctor’s office to make the appointment.”

Now… imagine…  today…

“You reach in your pocket and pull out your iPhone4 and you make a call using video relay.  Yes, today, it is now possible with ZVRS to make a video relay call!”

Three people from the audience, including Gallaudet president, Dr. T. Alan Hurwitz, made historical video relay calls from the stage.  It was absolutely amazing to watch each of them communicate via using a cell phone– how many of us have dreamed of that day?  The day is here!

Quoted in the Apple Insider: Apple Insider Article

Quoted in the MacApper: MacApper Article

Quoted in the Today’s iPhone:  Today’s iPhone

Engaget Article:  Engaget

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Tags: Uncategorized // 5 Comments »

Barefooting, I Mean, Butt Riding

Posted on July 7th, 2010 by DeafMom

I spent most of the July 4th weekend on my butt instead of my feet.  It was frustrating  challenging. 

Andy, my nephew, brought his boat up Saturday so I decided to try some deep water starts behind his boat.  Andy had never pulled before so I knew I was gambling with inexperience, but I figured he would get the hang of it quickly.  During the first start, he went s.l.o.w.  I kept hanging on, thinking he would pick up the speed.  He kept it going, figuring he’d up the speed when I sat up.

I finally let go.

Round two was better, I sat up and moved over the wake and Andy picked up speed.  I had Judy Myer’s, Keith St. Onge’s and Joann O’Conner’s advice running through my head as I placed my feet on the water.

Three point!

Heels toward your butt!

Feet on the water like you’re dropping an egg!

This is how I spent the rest of the evening:

On one start, it was the perfect storm.  I sat up and hit the stern roller just as Andy added more speed.  I popped up and lost the handle.  It snapped into my foot.  Can you say, “Ouch?”

I took a break and pulled Andy water skiing back to shore and I decided that it was time to hit the kneeboard so that I could actually get some footin in:

Being the stubborn gal I am, I decided to try the deep start a couple more times while the sun was setting.  Bad move.  As soon as I put my feet on the water and attempted to stand up, I felt my hamstring go “Pop!” and then:

The next day, my old footin buddy, Marty and his sister Michele picked me up.  Marty purchased a new, 100-foot Barefoot International rope and I decided to take Joann’s advice to stay behind the boat and plant my feet there.  After another gazillion tries, I knew I had to embrace the kneeboard again if I was going to see any barefooting time.

After that run, I gave Michele the kneeboard and said, “I gotta try one more time with the deep start to see if I can end this on a successful run.”

Let’s just say that if there was a butt-riding contest– I’d win.

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Tags: Christie Lake Adventures // 4 Comments »

Putz Household Celebrates Clean Sink

Posted on July 1st, 2010 by DeafMom

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Chicago–  The Putz Household is celebrating tonight.  For the first time since January 15, 2007, the Putz family has found the bottom of their sink again.

“It’s a miracle,” exclaimed Karen Putz, head of the household.  “The last time I saw the bottom of the sink was several years ago. I forgot what it looked like!”

Putz credits an empty house and lack of travel for the successful accomplishment.  “The kids are at camp all week and this was the first week in June that I didn’t have to fly somewhere,” said Putz.  “I took one look at the mountain of dishes and said to myself, ‘I’m going to conquer that this week!’”

It took Putz nearly an hour to load up the dishwasher and start the automatic cleaning process with a push of a button.  The large serving trays from Lauren’s graduation party were washed by hand and stored in the cabinet.

Over at Christie Lake in Lawrence, Michigan, Putz’s parents reacted with surprise and an excited cheer. “I’m so proud of my daughter!” said Marian Griffard.  “This is such an amazing feat!”

Putz was amazed to discover a shiny sink after a few scrubs with a Scotch-Brite scrubber and some baking soda.

“I was just blinded by the find,” said Putz.  “I had to dig out my sunglasses to finish the job.”

Putz plans to celebrate her thrilling achievement with a gathering of her closest friends tonight.

#  #  #

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Tags: CSDVRS, Inspirational Stuff, Uncategorized // 5 Comments »

Goodbye to Chicago Moms Blog, Hello to The Chicago Moms

Posted on June 29th, 2010 by DeafMom

For the last two years, I have been writing for the Chicago Moms Blog, a network of blogs owned by the Silicon Valley Moms group.  When I first came across the blog almost three years ago, I said to myself, “I want to write for them someday!” The blog network included Katie Couric from the New York Moms blog.

That someday came when Beth Blecherman, the co-founder, responded to a comment that I left on a disability blog post that she wrote and she sent me an email.  “Your blog is fantastic and inspirational,” she wrote.

And… would I like to write for the SV Valley Moms network, she asked.

Of course, the answer was yes. My first post was “When Your Only Option is a Thong.” As a result of that post, I’ve endured countless thong jokes and every now and then Vicki slings me a thong virtually on Twitter.  No amount of money will entice me to wear a thong.  Ever. Again.

The Chicago Moms Blog gave me the opportunity to have three of my posts syndicated in newspapers around the country.  To have a post selected for syndication was quite an honor, as only a few posts were selected from the many posts each week.

I also had the opportunity to connect with the Chicago Moms at several area events, including a special meetup of the Chicago Moms:

In a surprising turn of events, we learned that the Chicago Moms Blog and the entire network of SV Moms  would no longer be active.  It was a heartbreaking announcement for everyone.  Out of sad news came good news: The Chicago Moms website was born.

Stay tuned!  I’ll still be around as a Chicago Mom and will continue to write.  I promise not to sling any thongs on the new site.

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Tags: Uncategorized // 3 Comments »

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