Letters
to the Editor
Dear Editor,
I was recently informed that the University Minnesota Occupational
Therapy Program will no longer be accepting students; a sign that
the program may be facing elimination. I'm writing as a long-term
care consumer and advocate to ask the University, and Minnesota's
citizens, to reconsider. I ask that the program be allowed to admit
students for Fall 2005 then use the academic year 2005-2006 to consider
funding and administrative alternatives.
I can appreciate the University's
financial concerns, understand the need for the program to find
a new administrative "home,” and
see the loose reasoning that the other two occupational therapy programs
in Minnesota would be able to "pick up the slack.” However,
I am not aware of sufficient analysis supporting these reasons and
justifying the decision to restrict admission.
Program
Benefits Outweigh Program Costs
I realize that the Medical School experienced a $6.8 million budget
cut in the last biennium. However, I also understand that the occupational
therapy program operates within a self-sufficient model wherein tuition
pays the vast majority of expenses and State support (i.e., approximately
$230,000) mostly offsets any difference. Therefore, the financial
savings from admission restriction and potential closure are small
compared to the loss of these future occupational therapy practitioners.
Negative
Impact Upon Health Care Cost Containment Efforts
By program reduction or
elimination, the University may contribute to a rise in Minnesota’s
health care costs because of several factors, including:
* increased educational investments (i.e., higher private tuition);
* increasing workforce demand (i.e., due to aging population and
increased community-based/non-institutional living) plus a reduced
workforce (i.e., unless existing the two existing educational alternatives
can add sufficient capacity); and,
* increased recruitment and relocation costs to lure out-of-state
workers.
In the end, we all could bear the brunt of these increased costs.
Medical
School Reorganization: New OT Program Administrative "HOME"
I have been told that
the Medical School has recently reorganized in order to primarily
focus upon physician education. However, it is my belief that we
are experiencing health care system reform. The new health care
model will rely on a traditional medical model (i.e., diagnosis
and treatment toward a cure or symptom improvement) plus an equally
important community-based/non-institutional long-term care support
model (i.e., assessment of symptoms and environment; evaluation
of support needs; then development, implementation, and monitoring
of those solutions –a philosophy fairly distinct
from the medical model). Occupational therapy practitioners will
play a vital role toward ensuring safe and adequate community-based
independent living environments and service delivery.
Therefore, as the Medical School is now organized, I agree the occupational
therapy program should be relocated within an organizational structure
representative of this new complementary support model. Other relevant
disciplines may include social work (i.e., long-term care relocation,
housing and service coordination, etc.) and engineering (i.e., assistive
technology).
Untapped
Opportunities: Research and Development
Building on observations of Minnesota's successful medical device
industry, I believe the University (a nationally respected research
institution) has an excellent opportunity to partner the occupational
therapy program with mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering
programs as well as local entrepreneurs to develop innovative adaptive
technology solutions. Such innovations will be essential to containing
costs and expanding quality throughout the development, implementation,
and maintenance of the new community-based long-term care support
systems. The other two institutions offering occupational therapy
programs in Minnesota do not have the infrastructure to capitalize
upon these research and development opportunities. Plus, potential
economic development resulting from these innovations may create
additional financial donors for the University and the occupational
therapy program.
Conclusion:
Please Reconsider and Reevaluate
Again, I implore the University to reconsider the occupational therapy
program admission restriction. Please allow the program to admit
students for Fall 2005 then use the 2005-2006 academic year to consider
funding and administrative alternatives. Finally, I urge Minnesota
citizens to consider contacting the University to express their opinions
on this matter.
Thank you for your consideration.
Now is the time for input. Access readers who want to make a difference
should write to:
President Robert H. Bruininks
Office of the President
Room 202 Morrill Hall
100 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Email: bruin001@umn.edu
And to the :
Honorable David Metzen
Chairperson, UM Board of Regents
600 McNamara Alumni Center
200 Oak Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455-2020
Email: metze002@umn.edu
* Requests that your letter and email be copied to all Board of Regents
Members will be respected
Others interested in receiving copies are Dr. Frank Cerra, Vice
President of the Academic Health Center, 420 Delaware St. Minneapolis
MN, 55455 email cerra001@umn.edu and
the Occupational Therapy Program, 388 MMC 420 Delaware St, SE, Minneapolis,
MN 55455 email otprog@umn.edu
Dear
Editor,
My name is Vicki Martin. I am the deaf/hard of hearing representative
on the Disability Advisory Committee at 3M in Maplewood MN, and I
am a member of Self Help for Hard of Hearing (SHHH) people. I write
for the SHHH news on disability topics, and for other local publications
on other subjects.
The October 15 performance
of the play "Flags" at Mixed
Blood Theater was noted in the listing of accessible entertainment
in the October 10 issue of Access Press. attended that performance.
This my review of the captioning experience at Mixed Blood Theater.
Waving “Flags” for
Captioning
Jane Martin’s play “Flags”,
originally commissioned by the Guthrie Theater, delivers a powerful
message on stubbornness, stupidity, violence and pride. Its production
at Mixed Blood Theater on October 15 also delivered a strong statement
about accommodating hard of hearing people in the theater.
The message is this: accommodations do not have to be complicated
and expensive to be effective. Sometimes, all it takes is a little
thought.
We who belong to SHHH rely on real-time captioning every month in
order to participate in the organization. Our volunteers from Paradigm
make our monthly meetings accessible to all of us, and without them,
I for one would probably stay home.
Theater, however, is not public service. It is entertainment, and
it must be paid for. If real-time captioning is used, it can cost
up to $150 per hour.
What cost-conscious theater managers may not realize is that real-time
captioning is not needed when there is a script. All that is needed
is for the text of the dialogue to be entered into a computer text
presentation program. PowerPoint can certainly do the job, but it
has many more features than are needed for this application. The
simplest presentation program could work. Font and color need to
be manipulated, and it should be able to navigate from one screen
to the next with a click of the mouse.
For their production, Mixed Blood used a laptop computer positioned
before a group of about 10 reserved seats. They used a black background
with white letters in a very large font. A lighter background might
cause excessive glare in a darkened theater.
The font was large enough to be visible to up to 10 people sitting
in two short rows. In fact, it was too large for me when I sat right
in front of it. My eyes had to cover too wide an angle to take it
in, while also trying to watch the stage. After switching seats with
my husband Dennis, I sat at a more comfortable angle, and could easily
see both screen and stage without excessive eye movement.
For those accompanying a hard of hearing theater patron, the dark
background on the monitor helps to minimize any distraction. Experimentation
with color and font size can find the best mix of readability and
inconspicuousness. In our case Dennis, who was not watching the monitor
but was very close to it, said that it was not a distraction.
Such a setup does not require a professional captioner or anyone
with specialized skills. Someone needs to copy or enter the text
of the play into the presentation program, and one of the crew needs
to be on hand to listen to the performance and click the mouse at
the appropriate times.
Captioning at Mixed Blood
is offered for only one performance of each run. This follows the
tradition of having an ASL interpreter only for selected performances.
But because the work is done ahead of time and is available on
the computer at any time, this type of accommodation could reasonably
break with tradition and offer captioning for any performance –“on demand”,
you might say. This would be a real breakthrough for accessibility
in the theater.
As for the play itself:
as powerful as its message was, it had more profanity than I am
comfortable with –expletives that I never
would have noticed if I had not seen them on the screen. Mixed Blood
is known for its “inclusive” themes and its championing
of diversity. This may explain some of the excessive profanity.
Imagine, though, if we could see Shakespeare (and yes, I know --
he can toss off obscenities with the best of them), Ibsen, Chekhov,
performed on the stage -- and know what the characters are saying.
Imagine too that we had a choice of evenings, a choice of plays,
a choice of theaters. It is possible. And it is feasible even for
companies operating on a shoestring.
Captioning makes the theater experience available to hard of hearing
people, and I would like to see it offered in every theater. It can
be done with equipment on hand and a willing crew member. It may
not earn the theater company a fortune in increased ticket revenues,
but it will earn them something of greater value: the thanks of hard
of hearing theatergoers, and a reputation for accessibility in the
world of performing arts.
