Seeking Crowd Wisdom

[jesse_the_k]

...to help us spread the word about speaking up.

One of the goals of this year's WisCon access endeavor is to improve the con's experience for members with hearing impairments. We're supplying more mics for the panels. We reserve spaces front and center (marked with blue tape) which are handy for people who are speech reading.

But the crucial element is cooperation from all the members. I've come up with a wordy and sober statement. I'd love it if the collective wisdom could make this more succinct, more powerful, more impressive, more funny ... it just needs a whole lot of "more":

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It's important for all panelists to use the mics when provided, without hesitation, shyness, or complaint. What we say is interesting enough for the people without hearing impairments. If we don't use the mics, we're effectively preventing members with hearing impairments from participating. Since members in the audience don't have mics, we ask panelists to wait until the moderator has repeated the question before responding.
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Ideas? Thoughts?

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Many thanks to each of you for excellent points and good advice.

It's important to recognize that people's issues with shyness, social anxiety, and different understandings of social rules are part of our community.

I'm definitely going to admonish people to "welcome the mic into your personal space, around a fist width away from your mouth."

I've participated in panel discussions where there were wireless mics plus runners who brought the loud to audience members as needed. That's definitely the ideal, and relieves the moderator of the "rephrase & summarize the question" burden. WisCon is very devoted to low-cost solutions, however, and the budget won't cover wireless mics in the audience.

Even if it did, that doesn't help lipreaders. Before cheap video equipment, Deaf/HoH-run events placed copy signers and shadow lip speakers on the stage. They'd repeat audience questions verbatim, so the audience could keep their eyes front all the time. (And thanks for the reminder on the preferred terminology!)

fish_echo, you raise an intriguing point about preferring to use your own vocal projection skills instead of the mic. I've encountered this preference before and it stymies me. I'm sure you've worked hard to develop your projection and diction, and I don't mean to dismiss that effort.

The technical issue first: the mics are connected to an overhead speaker system, which means that the sound is equally loud throughout the room. The sound system is tuned to boost the mic'ed output above the constant air-conditioning hum. There are a variety of personal "assisted listening devices" like the ear-buds you mention: all of them work better with an amplified signal. For some of us, our hearing impairments are related to discriminating foreground and background: it's not just about the loud. If one person on a panel declines to use the mic, they are choosing to move from the foreground to the background.

Members of the Deaf/HoH community have made it clear that mic use and good sight lines are baseline requirements. One of my favorite things about WisCon members are the many first-time panelists, who lack your vocal polish. I'm hoping a policy of across-the-board mic use will mean better access for all of us.

Does learning these things change your mind?