Janice Schacter

Infobox Private School
background = Light Blue
border = Blue
name = The Hearing Access Program


established = 2002
head_name = Chair
head = Janice Schacter

Janice Schacter is the chair of the Hearing Access Program at the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

The Hearing Access Program is a program which helps guide museums and theaters through the process of making them accessible for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. When trying to make a museum and theater accessible, she leads them through the options of room hearing loops, a neck loop (or loop for short), and captioning, as well as sign language. Her goal is to help others with a hearing loss be more culturally involved.

The New York Times called her a "pushy mom who gets things done." She has testified before Congress and gave a press confence. She has worked with all the major museums in New York City and has worked with many outside this country.

On May 9, 2007 Janice Schacter presented at the Fighter Mom convention at the Palace Hotel in NYC.

In addition to her work making museums and theaters accessible, Janice has paved the way for open captioning at every National Park thru the National Park Service and brought accessibility at venues such as Graceland and Walt Disney World. Janice was also the person instrumental in adding the "hearing aid" accessory to the Build-A-Bear line of toys for children who face hearing loss so that they can be proud of who they are and more importantly other children can accept them as easily as those who face challenges with eyeglasses and wheelchairs. Never backing down from a challenge she works diligently each day ensuring all people with hearing loss can enjoy the arts and entertainment or participate fully in daily activities such as worshiping or going on a taxi ride which so many people take for granted.

External links

* [http://www.agbell.org/DesktopDefault.aspx Alexander Graham Bell Association web site]
* [http://www.hearingloop.org Hearing Loop informational web site]