As promised, here's another State's resources for those of you not living in Wisconsin. Special thanks to Judy Palnau from the Michigan Public Service Commission for sending me the information on the Cap-Tel Service as well as the Report to the Legislature from Jan. 2008. If you have any questions for her, she can be reached at 517-241-3323. It's rare that I actually hear from a governmental office and Judy went above and beyond in order to make sure that I got the correct information.
The following resources are for Michigan only. I have included the links to their websites. I would suggest that if you have questions, you should contact that particular resource for answers.
Michigan Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing - http://www.madhs.org/
Dr. David Myers website on Hearing Loop systems and information on how they are used - www.hearingloop.org This gentleman has taken a lot of time to find out all that he can regarding loop systems. His work is known though out the world and he is actually going to be our keynote speaker at the Wisconsin Hearing Loss Association State Convention on Oct. 3rd and 4th in Menomonie, WI. He's succeeded in getting many public venues looped in Michigan. He KNOWS what he is talking about! Kudos to you, David!
For those of you wanting to know what the Michigan population of Deaf and Hard of Hearing is, there are statistics by Counties on one of the State of Michigan government websites. The link is: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/Estimate_Report__02-05_119430_7.pdf The data is from 2005.
The State of Michigan Disability Resource page is at http://www.michigan.gov/disabilityresources There are several categories here that will take you to numerous informational things.
CapTel Service and equipment for Michigan: http://www.michigan.gov/mpsc/0,1607,7-159-16400_17280-147050-,00.html
MPSC's Michigan Telecommunications Relay Center Advisory Board Report to the Legislature from Jan. 2008: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mpsc/mrc08_220030_7.pdf
E-Michigan Deaf and Hard of Hearing People website: http://www.michdhh.org/ Lots of additional information and resource links!
And of course, the Hearing Loss Association of America has many chapters located in Michigan. They also have Cochlear Implant Support Chapters. These can be found at http://www.hearingloss-mi.org/
Have a great week!
Copyright 2008 Tami Klink