welcome to the mayor's disability council this friday, may 18, 2018. >> could you speak into the mic? >> co-chair blacksten: this one, ok. ok, is this good? all right. good afternoon, and welcome to the mayor's disability council this friday, may 18, 2018 in room 400 of san francisco city hall. city hall is accessible to persons using wheelchairs and other assistive mobility devices. wheelchair access is provided at the grove, van ness and

mcallister streets via ramps. wheelchair access at the polk street, dr. carlton b. goodlett entrance is provided via wheelchair lift. assistive listening devices are available and our meeting is open captioned in sign language interpreted. you are agendas are also available in large print and braille. please ask staff for any additional assistance. to prevent electronic interference with this sound room system and to respect everyone's ability to focus on he presentations, please silence all mobile phones and tdas. your cooperation is appreciated. we welcome the public's

participation during public comment periods. there will be an opportunity for public comment at the beginning and end of the meeting, as well as after every item on today's agenda. each comment is limited t three minutes. and the council will respond to our -- to comments following the meeting if you provide your contact information. you may complete a speaker's card available in the front of the room. approach the microphone during public comment or call our bridge line at 1-415-554-9632, where a staff pern will handle requests to speak at the appropriate time. the mayor's disability council

meetings are generally held on the 3rd friday of the month. our next regular meeting will be on friday, june 15, 2018, from 1-4 m., right here at san francisco city hall in room 400. please call the mayor's office on disability for further information, or to request accommodations at 1-415-554-6789, which is voice, or e-mail at m. a reminder to all guests today to speak slowly into the microphone to assist our captioners and interpreters. we thank you for joining us. now, let's move forward and have

roll call of the council members. >> co-chair denise senhaux absent. co-chair blacksten here. tatiana kostanian absent. council member alex ma sdrid here. council member sally coghlan mcdonald present. council member orkid sassouni here. council member helen smolinski. [interference [

>> co-chair blacksten: all right. ll, we'll take a deep breath and move forward from there. next item is -- are we ready? we're not done. >> clerk: i'm going finish roll call and there was feedback in the room, my apologies and i needed to contact media services to assist with that, but it seems to beng again, thank you. so orkid sassouni is here. council member helen smolinski is absent. >> here. >> clerk: i'm sorry, here. and kate williams is absent.

reading of the agenda. item 1. welcome, introduction and roll call. item 2, action item. reading and approval of the agenda. item 3, public comment. items not on today's ajeopardied, but within the jurisdiction of the mdc. we welcome the public's participation during public comment periods. there will be an opportunity for public comment at the beginning and end of the meeting as well as after every item on today's agenda, except for agenda items 8 a and 8 b. public comment for that item will be after both presentations. each comment is limited to three minutes and the council will respond to your comments following the meeting if you provide your contact information. you may complete a speaker's card, available in the front of the room.

approach the microphone during public comment, or call our bridge line, at 1-415-554-9632, where a staff person will handle requests to speak at the appropriate time. item 4. information item. co-chair report. item 5. information item. report from the mayo office on disability. please note that the director's reports can be found in the what's new section of mod's website. item 6, information it remote accessible vbye-ail system. the department of elections introduces a new ballot delivery option that allows voters with disabilities to access and mk their ballots using any computer with internet access.

this atmosphere provides an opportunity for accessible voting without having to go to a polling place or the city hall voting center where an accessible equipment is available. presence by john arntz, director, department of elections. public comment is welcome. inrmation item. in honor of hearing loss awareness month, age related hearing loss, age related hears loss effects one-third adults over the age of 65. we need to raise awareness on the impact this has on patients, significant others, as well as in a clinical settif left untreated. presentation by jessie johnson. clinical practice manager. and shannon simonson, direct other of education and social services. hearing and speech center of northern california. public comment is welcome. break, the council will take a 15-minute break. 8 a, information item, shared scooter permit program, starting

in june. the sfmta will be authorized to issue permits for shared scooter programs. sfmta is in the process of finalizing the detailed requirements for these systems and want to gather feedback on our recommendations for how to ensure that these scooters do not continue to pose a threat t th safety and accessibility of our sidewalks. presentation by miriam so rel. 8 information item. scooter sharing companies in san francisco. representatives of scooter sharing companies? san francisco will share information about their scooter sharing program and education efforts to ensure safety and access for people with disabilities on and off the sidewalk. presentations include megan colford, community affairs manager lime. brian no, head of public poll, spin carl hanssen, director of government affairs bird.

item 9, information item. improving the quality of muni/bart elevators at powell and civic center stations. this presentation will unveil a moh pilot program o staf the elevators with attendants to improve the quality of the elevator riding experience at those locations. presence by tim chan, acting group manager, station area planning, bart. public comment is welcome. item 10, public comment. items not on today's agenda, but within t jurisdiction of the mdc. each speaker is limited to three minutes. please approach the microphone or give your comment card to mod staff. item 11, information item. correspondence. item 12, discussion item, council member comments and announcements. item 13 adjourned. o-chair blacksten: ok, thank you, staff, we appreciate that.

so, let's go onto item 3, with which is public comment. we do have public comment card. could you approach the microphone? >> we have two, the fst is from the person with disability foundation. >> good afternoon, council members. i am the program manager for public awareness and education for people with disability foundation. pwds is a public nonprofit agency that provides legal services for people with psychiatric, intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, as well as public awareness events so this population can achieve equal opportunities in all aspes of life.

our advocacy program by mayor lee provides legal services to claimants. we represent clients on a sliding fee scale. we do not turn down any client if the client has merit, if the client cannot pay. we also are willing to pre galdvice and representation to combat discrimination in employment, education, health care, government benefits, and housing. including representing clients in discrimination cases under the americans with disability act. we would like to invite all of you to our upcoming educational event. it is entitled, employment supportrkra f people with psychiatric, intellectual and developmental disabilities

with emphasis on aged youth. it will be held in the main library on june 4, from 2-5 p.m. this event is free and open to the public. we also plan to live strea ts event over the internet for greater access. i have brought some flyers for you about this seminar. for more information about this event and the services, pwdf provides, please see our website. our phone number is (415) 931-3070. thank you for your tim a attention. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you very much. and now we'll hear from the second comment? public comment? >> sure.

zack, is he on the phone? >> yes, hi. there has been some technical difficulties, hopefully, the feedback won't happen. can you hear me? >> yes. >> thank you for givinghe me chan to speak today. i'm super grateful that mod exists and i've had a very positive experience with the staff. and i'm very grateful for that and i want to start by sharing that and thanking heather for all the hard work she's been doing. i want to make a public comment just to share some personal experiences of mine related to access and disability in san francisco. i am in a wheelchair. i have many disabilities. and i don't have wheelchair access to my home right now. in order to leave my home, i have to crawl along the floor. there is no law forcing my

landlord to provide wheelchair access to my home, and even if she were, i would have to pay 100% of the cost. when i've looked for different forms of housing that are ada accessible, i face lots of discrimination in san fraco from different housing owners, from different building owners. i feel like housing for the disabled right now is a significant issue in san francisco. another significant issue i'd like to bring up is with the in-home support services. i've had a really, really difficult time accessing the mentorship services. i've brought up many complaints. when asked if we could have a support group for clients in the program, she that would not be considered because we might complain and we would not be able to be monitored. working with kelly dearman has been trying and she has cancelled my appointment for no reason to try to speak with the deputy director of home support

services. she has blocked me from speaking with her. there has been a refus to include me in many ways. and i've had a very hard time accessingmentorship services to get my medication, get food and have meals prepared. i've not had in-home support service for months now a is been very, very hard for me. i've asked very simple things from kelly deerman, such as help posting ads around the neighborhood for in-home support person, help texting messages for in-home support person, and someone t come and just help me do interviews. and these services have been denied to me. and i just want to share that, because there is ongoing -- just problems with some of these local agencies. and another thing i've asked of

kelly deerman and home support services is trauma support services for anyone that is abused by an in-home provider. and so far, not only willy t not provide an emergency contact person on staff, but they refuse to even include information about trauma services and emergency services if a situation were to arise. >> co-chair blacksten: could you conclude your remarks? >> sure, absolutely. there are more ongoing issues. i won't go into them further, but i want to thank mod staff for their time and looking into these issues already. i really appreciate it. thank you. >hair> co-clacksten: i want to thank you and we hear what you're saying and there will be -- feel free to follow up. are there any more people who want to have public comment? all right. hearing none, let's move on to information item number 4. which is the co-chair report.

and in the sake of brevity and a packed agenda, i'm going to not make my report today. we'll do it at the next monthly meeting. i will just say that we really do appreciate all the public comment. i was going to make that as part of the report. we want to do as much follow-up as we can and we're glad to have this agenda today. these are important items. all right, let's move on to information item number 5. we're going to have a report from the mayor's office on disability from nicole bohn, the executive director. >> thank you. hi, good afternoon, everybody. thank you for being here. i'm nicole bohn, the director of the mayor's office on disability. i have quite a number of

follow-ups and items to announce today, which i'm going to announce verbally and then there will be written follow-up that will be posted next monday as well. so as many of the council members know, may has been a very packed month of actity for our community. so, first i want to report back on the mayoral forms, specifically for people with disabilities and older adults. that was extremely well attended. we had over 900 people in person and another 1200 who had watched online. so that is very exciting news. the dignity fund coalition, who are one of the cosponsors of the event, collected over 150 questions to the mayoral candidates from people with disabilities and older adults. and for the council's

information, the top concerns of people with disability in the -- from the forum were access to affordable and accessible housing. accessible transportation options. cleanliness of the streets a sidewalks and access to the public right-of-way. and employment. next item that i want to touch base on is we had a very successful -- or second annual connect with tech week. that was may 8-11. also well attended and many events dedicated to people with disabilities. i want to thank also heather kittel from the mayor's office on all of the work on those events. the third thing that i want to update on, is the supervisor yee hearing on employment opportunities for older adults and adults with disabilities, which took place on may 9.

and was again, well attended. we heard presentations from department of aging and adult services, the department of ecomic and workforce office of development and our colleagues in the department of rehabilitation and myself. and we had a number of people with disabilities in public comment following the hearing which was very good to see. it is very clear that we're doing many things, but there is much that still needs to be done, especially in terms of collaboration around different employment events. to that end, i want to announce a couple of things. one, going on concurrently with our meeting right now is the california academy of sciences job fair for people with disabilities, which i had the privilege of being able to take off this morning with supervisor

fewer. and there were a number of people with disabilities who were there and tabling specifically were organizations from the hotel industry, department of rehabilitation, all of our museums, and microsoft, just to name a few. while i was there, microsoft asked me to announce that next week is their ability week event. they're going to be having events from may 29 to june 2 at the microsoft store in the westville center, specifically for people with disabilities all week. especially around learning about the different technology opportunities, demos and information about improving technological accessibility for people with disabilities. that information will be posted as part of my report. you can also register by e-mailing jelimos @

microsoft.com. and the third thing, the next thing i should say, that i would like to talk about is we have a neighborhood empowerment ience summit that happened on may 16, that really talked about community building for ople ithdisabilities. it was a bay area wide event held in city hall. several of the mayor's disability council members attended and that event was also very well received. and that same day, we had accessible business entrance, educational program. the next edutional proam around the city's ordinance for making our businesses and places of public accommodation accessible will be part of the earthquake safety fair that is on june 13. and then, let's see, ok, the

next thing i want to announce, these are all things that are now coming up that i want to talk about. the next thing happening is the service dogs in private businesses and public spaces educationve which will be held thursday, may 24, in the main library koret auditorium and you can register for that workshop as well. then a reminder that the last day to apply for vote-by-mail to be eligible in this upcoming june 5 election is on may 29. and then, one last thing that i wanted to announce is that the oakland mayor's commission for people with disabilities, which is the counterpart council to this council here, will be discussing accessible

bike-sharing at their next meeting, which is june 18. 5:30 to 7:30 at oakland city hall. and they're going to be having representatives from accessible bike organizations and businesses there. it's going to announce it in the event that folks from this group might want to collaborate and be part of that meeting as well and finally, i want to just talk about one legislative update which is where we are in terms f our work with senator hill's office on proposed transportation network company, or tnc legislation, that those ar companies like über and lyft that provide ride hailing opportunities. we've been working in collaboration with local advocacy groups on language

related to this bill. and the mayor's disability council may consider supporting this bill, and/or, becoming a party to the proceedinghrou the california public utilities commission, please feel free to follow up with me about that. and with that, that is what i have to share for this month. thank you very much. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you for that report. we can always depend upon nicole bohn to give us an in-depth report, that is for sure. so, let us move on to information item number 6. which will be the first presentation. and this is the remote accessible vote-by-mail system. and we have one presenter for this, john arntz. welcome to the mayor's council

on disability. >> good afternoon, council members, john arntz, director of elections, thank you for having me here today. today, i'll do a presentation on the city's new remote accessible vote-by-mail system and then i'll take questions after the presentation. so i want to say before i begin the presentation that the remote accessible vote-by-mail system is not a replacement of any existing voting system in the city, it's another option to voting accessibility in the city. hopefully that will be made clear in the presentation i make today. so the first slide provides some information about what the department has done so far to provide information about remote accessible vote-by-mail system. the presentation contains the same material we share at outreach events and will address the following topics. what is remote accessible vote-by-mail system?

who is eligible to use the system? when can voters access their ballots through the system? what are the steps to access, mark, print and return the ballots? and how does the system ensure voters' privacy of selections? what is remote accessible vote-by-mail syst? it is a new option that allows voters with disabilities to access and mark their ballots in a screen readable format from any computer with internet access. the service provides an opportunity for accessible voting without having to go to a polling place on election day. the department provides accessible voting equipment. it's important to note voters must have access to a compute tory print the ballot. only voters with disabilities and those in the military are eligible to use the system.

to be able to access the ballot through the remote accessible vote-by-mail system, the person must registered. the department offers several ways to apply for a vote-by-mail ballot. they can submit a paper application or apply online at sf elections.org. or call us at (415) 554-4375 and our tty line number is (415) 554-4386. to use the remote accessible vote-by-mail system for the june election, ballots are available during the early voting period which started may 7, and continue through election day, tuesday, june 5. to access the system, go to sfelections.org. we will review the experience

with the system in the next slide. after entering sf elections.org, voters arreo portalor registering their address and zip code. after entering this information, the voters click on the submit button. next is the welcome screen. voters can select a language, english, chinese, spanish or filipino, which they prefer to use the system. they can adjust the font size of the information appearing on the screen. once preferences are selected for language and font size, voters will click on the continue button. on this next screen, voters will need to read the notice to confirm their eligibility to access the system, and then check the box next to the statement certifying that all information is true. these confirmations must be presented to potential users of

the system in accordance with the california secretary of state approval of the system after certifying that the confirmationsply, voters then click on the continue button. on this next screen, voters will be presented with instructions for returning their ballots and the department's contact information in case voters have any questions or need assistance. voters can choose to readhe struions on the screen or download them to the computers by clicking on the button on how to return ballots. when voters are ready to mark their ballot, they will click on the continue button at the bottom of the screen. the ballot will be presented onscreen in accessible format compatible with screen readers. here's an excerpt. voters can use assistive device by clicking on the check box. to remove a selection, click on the checked box again.

to vote for a qualified write-in candidate not listed on the ballot, click the check box beside the write-in space at the end of the candidate list and then type the candidate's name in the space. after voters have marked their ballots, they click on the continue button at the bottom of the screen. voters can then review their ballot selection on the review screen. if voters want to change any selection, they click the change button next to the listed selection. when voters are finished reviewing the selections, click on the continue button at the bottom of the screen. as noted in the beginning of the presentation, after voters mark their ballot, they must print and return their ballot to the department. voters will click on the print selections button to print the ballots. after the ballot has printed, click the end session button to close the session. voters must be sure to print the

ballots before ending the session, otherwise, they have to start the voting process again. after printing their selections, voters will have a ballot printout similar to the content on the screen where voter selections are listed. the ballot will print on a single page and only voter selections will appear for each contest and measure. if they did not vote on contest or measure, they'll see the message, zero selections made. in the top right corner, there will be a q.r. code containing the voter selections. this q.r. code does not hold any voter identifying information such as name or address. a scan of the q.r. code will provide a list of numbers that corresponds to contest numbered on choic. this screen lists the content of the scanned q.r. code. v. 1.2 represents the version of

the code. vf 10 is the ballot type or style. p.i.d. 7866 is a precinct number. i.d. is a serial number on the paper b slotub. the firstumber identifies the contest that corresponds to that which appears on the ballot. in this example, in contest one, the person voted for the 13th candidate listed for that contest. for measures, 1 corresponds to a yes vote. and 2 corresponds to a no vote. after printing the ballot selections, voter can prepare to return their ballots to the department. next, we can review the options to return voted ballots. as a vote-by-mail voter, voters

will receive paper ballot, a post--age paid return envelope and voctio i in the mail. if someone marks a ballot through the remote accessible vote-by-mail system, they can mail it to the department using the postage paid envelope. they must sign the envelope. the holes on the envelopes indicate the edges of the signature box. for voters unable to sign, they may make a mark and have sa witness sign next to the mark. if voters are unable to return their ballots, they may authorize anyone to return it by providing the required information on the back of the envelope. if ballot return envelope gets lost or spoiled, contact the department and we'll make a replacement envelope. but if someone prefers to use their own envelope, they must print, complete and sign the

voter oath available on the screen with instructions which was reviewed earlier. they will verify signatures as required under state election law. this shows the address to wri on the envelope and return to the department. voters may also rurn their ballots in person to the city hall voting center. the voting center is open now through election day, tuesday june 5, 8-5 p.m. on the weekends, 10-4 p.m. on the two weekends prior to election day and on the election day, they observe 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. voters may bring their ballots o drooff stations located outside of city hall or to any california polling place or voting center prior to and on election day. next, regarding ballot return deadlines. all ballots that are mailed must

be post marked, date stamped before or on election day, tuesday, june 5 and received no later than friday, june 8. ballots returned in person must be received by the department no later than 8 p.m. election day, tuesday june 5. it's important to note that the system does not identify or keep track of users. it only requires voters to acknowledge they're eligible to use it. this in accordance with the requirements by the secretary of state. also accordance with the certification, the portion of the process during which the person marks selection on the ballots, does not interact with any remote server. the ballot-marking process takes place solely on the device the voter is using to access the system. the system does not store or transmit votes over the internet and does not allow electronic

voting. as discussed earlier, voters must print and return their ballots to the department for counting. when the department receives a vot voted -- during this process, to idthe secrecy of the votes, the department personnel will remove and separate the ballots from their envelopes that contain the voter name, address and signature, so they are not linked to the envelope. this is done by a multiperson team, open to public observation and live streamed on s.f. elections. this concludes the presentation. if anyone has any questions about the remote accessible vote-by-mail system, or accessing, marking or returning their ballot, contact the department at (415) 554-4375 or

(866) 325-9163. our tty line, (415) 554-4386. you can e-mail us at sfvote @ sf gov.org. i can take any questions at this time. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you for your presentation. stay right there for a few minutes. i'd like to open up to the -- my colleagues here on the council. are there any of you who have a question for our presenter? orkid? all right. >> i'm wondering if i heard in

california online, there is a videotape that is -- i'm wondering if the city will provide that as well. >> of the system? >> co-chair blacksten: well, actually, election - i kw that the state of california has already posted it online and i've been able to watch that, you know, it explains about the election process, how to vote and all the information. i'm wondering if the city is going to provide a similar service? i kind of heard a rumor that it would, but i haven't been able to find it. >> the voter guide is available in that format. >> co-chair blacksten: in american sign language? >> no. we don't have that currently. can you -- can you send a link to us of the video? >> co-chair blacksten: yes, i'd be happy to do that. >> thank you.

>> co-chair blacksten: the next council member is alex. >> council membemadrid: thank you for coming. quick question. i know that people with disabilities sending out for electronic voting and my question is, when someone has disability and mobility issues, can they still come to vg location and someone will assist them? >> yes. both at the polling place and city hall. so if someone requests assistance, poll workers are trained to provide that

assistance at the city hall voting center. >> >> council member mcdonald: you indicated they have to have eligibility, but is there any way to check that? >> other than the affirmation that someone meets those requirements is required to vote on that ballot style. >> council member mcdonald: i wondered if i missed something, ok. >> co-chair blacksten: all right. so i will ask you one question here. a number of us from the blind community use adaptive technology on our computers in order to access websites. and one of the programs is job access and speech. what are you currently doing to make sure your website is

accessible to adaptive technology? >> all our website content goes through a review. even this presentation, for instance, which we can post on the website, now that i think about it, would be accessible using a screen reader. there is tools, which i can't think of right now, we use to apply to the content that we place on our site. >> co-chair blacksten: that's great. thank you. i would like to open it up to staff. any questions or comments by staff? >> hi, this is nicole, thank you for coming and the presentation today. one of the thing that has come up in the voting accessibility advisory committee, which both john and i co-chair, is what to do if folks have difficulty either accessing print or printing in general. what recommendations do you have for that? >> well, one -- someone could actually save their ballot on

usb and bring it to print it out. depending on how they access the ballot, they can use a computer at any site. the browser software is pretty broad that can allowccessing the content, so somebody can bring up the ballot selections, make their choices and then print out offsite. they don't have to be at their homes to vote. they can go to other places and save it to usb if necessary and then go to a printer. >> great and one follow-up for that. just to make sure everybody is aware. this is statewide legislation, so there are similar procedures for accessible voting in other counts? >> right. >> thank you. >> co-chair blacksten: any other staff comments? >> not at this time. >> co-chair blacksten: let's go to the bridge line, anyone with a question or comment?

not at this time. very good. well, that concludes. so we don't have any further questions of the presenter. i will open it up for public comment. no speakers' cards, no comment. nothing. ok. going once, twice, three times. then i'm going to close out this information item number 6. again, thank you for coming. all right, let's go to number 7. we have three presenters here. and this is in honor of hearing loss awareness month, age related hearing loss. all right. what we're going to do is hear from both presenters and then i

will open it up to comments from my colleagues here on the council. but for the sake of time, let's hear from both of them and then we'll go forward from there. welcome. >> hi. i'm jessie from the hearing an speech center of northern california. it's my first time here today, so i apologize for n knowing how things work. i have a presentation. thank you. so, just me here today from the hearing and speech center. the hearing and speech center of northern california is a nonprofit organization in san

francisco, we're celebrating our 101st year providing services in san francisco in the bay area. and i'm going to -- national better hearing and speech month, so i'm he to talk about age related hearing loss today. so age related loss is better known as press pa kocsis, it's a progressive deterioration of the auditory cells and processing functions and is associated with with the aging process. as you can see on the slide, it is prevalent in one-third of people over the age of 65 they have hearing loss of this type. that number goes up to one-half over the age of 75. it's the third most prevalent

chronic condition in the united states in older americans after hypertension and arthritis. it's often overlooked. it'sundetected, underestimated and it's because it's due to slow development and part of the aging process. a lot of my clients often say, my doctor said it's normal for your age. and it is normal for our age, however, it doesn't mean it's normal. and that means there is something we can do to treat it if possible. because there is a lot of negative effects on our cognitive, physical and social functioning when it is untreated. it's our brain that does the hearing, not our ears. we hear through three processes. it's the external and the middle ear collects the sound and

trance transdeucings it and then the brain decodes the information into meaning. if that signal that is coming through is degraded or distorted, it maker i diffic for our brain to do its job. our brain performs four key tasks so it localizes, orientates what is happeng i the environment. it recognizes what that sound is and makes sense of it. it focuses on what is important. and then it separates out from other competing sounds. i'd like to talk about how much our brain is involved in hearing because when we're not getting that information,cat n really affect a lot of our cognitive function and there is a ton of studies out right now, that are -- it's the hot topic in audiology.

we don't have a lot of hot topics northerly normally, so it's something that is being looked at. there is a lot of studies through johns hopkins by dr. lin, and there was an important study from franceamt about two years ago. what it's looking at is the correlation between untreated hearing loss and cognitive decline. there is another study out by the lancet commission from 2017 and it talks about how there is risk factors for dementia. and there is modifiable risk factors and hearing loss is one of the nine modifiable risk factors, but is also the single most -- the single risk factor that is accounted for the greatest proportion of dementia risk. something that could be looked at mid and late life that can be treated. a lot of the studies, what we're

talking about is the cognitive load that is put onto the brain to have to put all this extra energy into youristening effort. and when we're putting all this weight on our cognitive load for listening, it's taking away from otherunctions that the brain could be doing. and that's why a lot of the studies are looking at if we treat the hearing loss versus not treating the hearing loss, how does that change our risk factors? so they're seeing if we treat the hearing loss, the risk factors goes down and then they're also looking at the degree of hearing loss and how that changes your risk factors as well. we start to pull back from social activities and that gives

us a higher risk for overall poor health conditions. isolation can lead to depression and depression is a risk factor. so all these things are tied in and what we're looking at in the audiology community right now. so we talk about the imprtance of early intervention and detection. so whenever i give presentations throughout the city, i always ask how many people in the room have had their hearing tested and most of the times hands don't go up. but as i look around the room, i see that a lot of people are wearing glasses s i know that people get their eyes checked regularly. but hearing tests are not regular. and that is something we want to change to if you're not treating your hearing loss at least you know what your hearing loss is. please stand by.