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the right place to get updated on what's happening in our organization and community. CAD Membership:
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 Last Update: May 21, 2013 CAD now accept nominations for two special CAD Awards The awards will be presented at the CAD conference in November. If you know someone who deserves one of these two awards, click here to fill out the attached nomination form. When you are done, please either email or mail it to Patti Wilson at the address provided. Deadline is July 1, 2013. CAD Awards:
Call to the 29th Biennial CAD Conference Windsor Locks, CT - November 1 & 2, 2013 Position Announcement from BRS under CT DORS The State of CT is hiring a second RCD for its Hartford office. You can obtain a copy of the posting with additional information at click here. New hearing aid tax credit bill would benefit people of any age By David Kirkwood On April 9, 2013 From Hearing Health & Technology MattersWASHINGTON, DC-Lead sponsors Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) were joined by eight co-sponsors in reintroducing Hearing Aid Tax Credit legislation into the Congress on March 21. These and other sponsors will work to ensure that the measure is considered during the 113th Congress, one in which major federal tax reform is likely. This year's bill, HR 1317, differs somewhat from similar measures introduced in previous sessions of congress in that the tax credit would be available to hearing aid purchasers of any age. Previous bills would have applied only to children and people 55 and older. If the proposed bi-partisan legislation is enacted, it will provide a $500 tax credit per hearing aid purchased. The credit would be available every five years. Hearing Care Community Lobbies A few weeks before the measure was re-introduced, the Hearing Industries
Association (HIA) and the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) rallied
support for it at HIA's biennial Hearing on the Hill.
HIA and HLAA members formed teams to meet with over 80 members of the House
and Senate and staffers to lobby for passage of HR 1317 and a companion bill
in the Senate. Joining them were members of the Academy of Doctors of
Audiology, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Society and the
International Hearing Society.
Andrew Bopp, HIA's director of government relations, said, "Public support
and House/Senate co-sponsorship are crucial to the tax credit's passage. We
urge all consumers and hearing professionals to contact their Congressional
Representatives in support of the Hearing Aid Tax Credit."
Voters can send a message to their representatives by going to a web site
Do you want Insurance cover the cost of your Hearing Aids? Read on! by: Richard Morris, with inputs from Randy Kirsch Thanks to Randy Kirsch from CT HLAA, it was brought to our attention that there was a Bill pending before the Insurance and Real Estate Committee, Proposed House Bill No. 5433, which seeks to increase the insurance coverage for hearing aids for people have a hearing loss of more than 90% whateverthat may mean. Hearing loss is usually measured by a range of decibels. Unfortunately the public hearing on the Bill was on February 19. We only became aware of the bill recently, and don't know if anybody was aware of the Bill earlier. While there may not be much we can do at this point to move the Bill forward and get it passed this year. The one thing in our favor is that the Bill was not vetoed, it is just sitting with the Insurance and Real Estate Committee where it will most likely die unless we DO SOMETHING about it. We may want to look into it and see how we can improve it to benefit more deaf and hard of hearing people who wear or need hearing aids, and work TOGETHER to get this bill passed next year! The proposed Bill follows: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened: Statement of Purpose: When the time is right we would need your support. We will tell you when to write your state legislators and ask them to sign on as supporters or co-sponsors of this bill, and to encourage them to vote for this bill at every opportunity. One of our first steps is to write to the members of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee and encourage them to vote this Bill out of Committee favorably. Randy Kirsch of CT HLAA pointed out that "We also need to educate these folk on the proper measure of hearing loss, the bill should specify a threshold level in term of hearing at only "X" decibels or louder rather than talking in terms of hearing loss as a percentage - a percentage of what?" For a start, we would want to lower the hearing loss criteria down from 90% to 60% or 70% so more hearing aid users can benefit from the new bill. If you are interested in getting this bill passed, please let us know. More to come! |
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New YouTube Video for Taxpayers with Disabilities Look at the video here. Help a deaf puppy find a home This puppy is located in New
Hartford. I am giving you the name and contact information of the rescue
organization that is trying to find him a home. The post says foster, but
they are willing to adopt him out too. Thanks!!
CT becomes the 12th State to have the Deaf Child Bill of Rights Law by Richard Morris, CAD Editor “A great beginning for Connecticut children and youth who are deaf and hard of hearing!” -- Dr. Harvey Corson, President, Connecticut Association of the Deaf It is now official! On, June 15, 2012, Governor Dannel Malloy signed the Deaf Child Bill of Rights bill (HB 5353) into a law, thus making Connecticut, the birthplace of deaf education, the 12th state to have the Deaf Child Bill of Rights. The new law will take, effective on July 1, 2012. It is truly a historic day in the making for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities in Connecticut as well across the country, because the DCBR law creates an environment that will allow our deaf and hard of hearing children to become who they really are, develop, learn, expand and shine in all education settings. CAD thanks you for taking action through letters and calls to your legislators as well for showing up and speaking at the public hearing for our bill. With our strong advocacy we have achieved our goal! Congratulations! CT General Assembly Passed the Deaf Child Bill of Rights “A great beginning for Connecticut children and youth who are deaf and hard of hearing!” -- Dr. Harvey Corson, President, Connecticut Association of the Deaf On Wednesday, May 9, the CT Senators have unanimously passed the Deaf Bill of Rights (HB 5353, Section 11); only a few days after the CT House of Representatives passed the bill also unanimously. Once Governor Malloy signs the Deaf Child Bill of Rights into law, the State of Connecticut will become the 12th State in the United States that has the Deaf Child Bill of Rights (DCBR) law. It is truly a historic day in the making for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities in Connecticut as well across the country, because the DCBR law requires that a Language & Communication Plan be attached to EVERY deaf/hard of hearing child's Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Under the leadership of Dr. Harvey Corson, the President of the Connecticut Association of the Deaf (CAD), and Ms. Terry Bedard, a mother of a deaf son, who is the President of the Hear Hear Hartford, a Chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA); many deaf and hard of hearing individuals as well organizations serving them have worked together and put all their effort into getting this bill passed. Many of them have wrote letters, made phone calls to and even met with their legislators. As a result, the DCBR bill passed through both houses in spite of the fact that this year's legislative session was only 60 days long, which is remarkable, because according to Ms. Bedard, the average amount of time to get a legislation passed is about 5 years! To celebrate this historic legislation, many leaders, supporters and their organizations are planning to come together at the Saturday, June 2nd Walk4Hearing event in the Great River Park in East Hartford where many CT legislators will be invited to join in the celebration! It will be a wonderful opportunity for us to thank the legislators for their unwavering support of our DCBR bill. What's more is that CAD will have a participating walk team at this event. For more information how to join the CAD walk team or make a donation to the CAD team, scroll down to the next article on this page or go to the Walk4Hearing website at Walk4Hearing. To read the Deaf Bill of Rights click here to see the Section 11 of HB5353. For more information about the CAD Walk Team at the June 2nd Walk4Hearing event, please contact Richard Morris at MorrisRich@aol.com
To Members and Friends: It is an honor to serve as your CAD President for the next two years, 2011-2013. I want to thank President Mike Finneran, the officers, board members, committee chairs and members for their fine work during the Finneran Administration for the past two years, 2009-2011. It is gratifying to see that the new CAD Board -- out of eleven elected officers and board members, ten of them have chosen to continue their service on this board in the same or different roles. One "new" board member is a veteran from previous years of service to the CAD. That speaks well of all eleven officers and board members in terms of their interest and commitment. I shall look forward to working with them as the members of the same team. The next two years we will have our goal of making the lives of our Deaf and Hard of Hearing citizens more meaningful and enjoyable in this State of Connecticut. We shall pursue Equal Access and Equal Opportunity for all Deaf and Hard of Hearing citizens in our advocacy work. This will mean we will continue our work with the Connecticut Coalition for Education of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children (CCEDHHC), including the American School for the Deaf and CREC Sound Bridge, in securing an appropriate "Deaf Child's Educational Bill of Rights" state legislation in Connecticut. This will also mean we will continue our work with the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and the Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs Serving the Deaf (CEASD) in advocacy work in securing an appropriate "Child First" Federal legislation in the forthcoming reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This will also mean we will continue our work with the CT Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities (OPA), the NAD, and other partners in advocating for captioning of movies and captioning for text with internet based web streaming services in accordance to latest Federal and state court rulings, the proposed Rule Making to Revise the ADA Implementing Regulations by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), and the proposed Rule Making to Implement the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). We recognize that we need to be unified in our efforts. Therefore, I say this to you all: come one and come all to be CAD members of this 73- year old civil rights organization of the Connecticut Deaf Community. Attached is the Membership Application Form to fill out and join the CAD. Thank you for your continued interest and support. |
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