Dennis

Tourism luncheon On May 15, 2024, I attended a luncheon at the Cedar Silos Event Venue (TEPCO) sponsored by the Baytown Tourism office (Visit Baytown). The event was to celebrate National Travel & Tourism Week.  The Tourism office is in the Baytown Visitor Center at 311 West Main Street, Baytown, Texas. The luncheon was to inform us about tourism in the city of Baytown.  Our speakers for the event were Anna Yowell, Tourism Manager; Brandon Capetillo, Mayor of Baytown; and Shane Wilhelm, Director of Membership Resources Development.  All speakers addressed the advantages of selecting Baytown as your place to visit or hold a convention. The benefits of choosing Baytown as your trip destination are:

• The fifty parks and 15 miles of scenic trails.
• Two nature centers.
• Abundant fishing locations.
• Birding locations.

There are three hotels with convention or event space and over 2,000 rooms available in all hotels.  A short video about Baytown tourism was shown. It included closed captions at Anna's request for those who are deaf or hard of hearing. A sign language interpreter and speakers were provided during the video. The meal serviced by the venue was delivered. The Baytown Tourism staff was there to help when anyone needed help. The Tourism team made a giant step toward becoming deaf-friendly in 2023 when they created a deaf-friendly visitor's center. The geocaching sites are located by the visitor's center, and descriptions can also be viewed in ASL. 

Dennis

I have enjoyed volunteering at the Baytown Visitor Center for the last few years. I work in the lobby area at the front desk and greet visitors when they come in to see what happens in Baytown.  We get to explain to them about what there is to do in Baytown and the surrounding area (there are many things to do in Baytown).   Since I started volunteering at the Visitors Center, I believe it was in November of 2021. The Baytown Visitor Center (under the direction of Anna Yowell, the director of the Visitors Center, and others) has worked to become deaf-friendly.   The first step in becoming deaf-friendly is the GeoTour set up by the Visitor Center. While there are many cache sites (location of cache or a small object to find) in Baytown the Visitor Center has set up 33 different cache sites.  Each cache has a description of what is located at the cache site (a park or other places of interest in Baytown). The difference between the cache sites is that the ones set up in the Visitor Center are interpreted into American Sign Language by a qualified ASL interpreter or a deaf person.   So, if you are deaf or hard of hearing and like to go outside with nature come to Baytown and take the Visitors Center’s GeoTour, you will enjoy it.      The second step to being deaf-friendly was in 2022 the Visitors Center sponsored a booth at the Deaf Expo in Austin Texas.   We want to let the deaf community know that Baytown is a place they can come and be comfortable. We featured the GeoTour of the Visitors Center.   This year and in 2022 the City of Baytown proclaimed the month of September as Deaf Awareness and Acceptance Month in the city of Baytown. While the proclamation belongs to every deaf and hard of hearing that lives in the City of Baytown it is on display at the Baytown Visitor Center.   I just finished an ADA report on each hotel in the City of Baytown. While the report focused on all disabilities I focused on deaf and hard of hearing.     This year the Visitors Center started ASL Classes.  The classes are offered to other departments in the city government. The classes are taught by a deaf instructor.   I volunteered during the Baytown Christmas parade on December 7 and Christmas on Texas Avenue on December 9. We were stationed at a booth in front of the Visitors Center. during the events, I wore a badge with the words
   Visit Baytown.com
   Information Specialist 
     ASL
The letters ASL on the badge are in the ASL manual alapbeth 
 Let everyone know that American Sign Language is spoken at the Visitors Center.  Why?  Because Anna Yowell, all the staff, and the volunteers of Baytown Visitors Center want everyone who visits or lives in Baytown to feel welcome and that they belong in our city.     I have complete confidence that Anna and the staff at the Baytown Visitors Center will continue to progress toward becoming deaf-friendly by continuing the development of the Deaf Friendly program by continuing the development of the ASL classes and offering them to more than just city departments.  I believe they are working toward a deaf-friendly Baytown.   

April

I'm reviewing again have been friend for a long time and they had me to volunteer there, I appreciated they let me share more about Deaf Community and more has step in to support. It's a wonderful place to visit and they support Deaf Community! There's greeting are awesome!

I realized I have two username in this.. I did reviewed post about this back about or more than 4 years ago. 

Dennis

I have enjoyed my volunteer work at the Baytown Visitor Center.  I would like to praise them for continuing their efforts to make Baytown friendly to everyone including people with disabilities.  Recently they have started teaching basic sign language classes (the teacher is deaf, but I do not have her permission to use her name).  The class is for the employees of Baytown Texas and the water department has already taken one class I understand there are other departments interested in taking the class. I understand that they study signs for things like “Good Morning or Afternoon” and “Take a ticket please”.  Things that they would use for work to communicate with deaf and hard-of-hearing people. They have also just completed a list of the hotels in Baytown to find the accessibility of the hotels for disabled customers.  While many hotels had amenities for disabled persons most are required by ADA law (what the ADA requires is based on when the hotel was built).  There are a few newer hotels in Baytown that have a room already for deaf customers all hotels are required to have a deaf kit.  A deaf kit should include a TTY Mondem, a Visual Alert System, A Bedshaker, and other things to help the deaf and hard of hearing.  

Dennis

In November 2021 I started Volunteering at the Baytown Visitors Center. My supervisor at the time was Marisa Jennings. The more I talked to Marisa the more I realized we had some of the same goals.  One of those goals is to create a more positive Deaf friendly atmosphere In the City of Baytown Texas.  On September 1, 2022, that goal began to take shape.  The City of Baytown Mayor Brandon Capetillo signed a proclamation proclaiming the month of September 2022 as Deaf Awareness and Acceptance Month.  On September 16, 2022, the Baytown Sun published an article entitled “September is Deaf Awareness and Acceptance Month”.   On September 17, 2022, the Baytown Chamber of Commerce posted to their Facebook page a picture of the proclamation.  This means much to me, I am hard of hearing, but I have friends that are deaf, and I see them struggle to communicate with hearing individuals, yes, I do struggle but not as much as my friends. Communication would be easy if the hearing individual would learn some American Sign Language signs, about 25 to 50 signs would be enough. Other ways to communicate with deaf individuals is to get a piece of paper and a pencil and write notes; use the note app on your phone; on my phone I have an app called Live Transcribe. This app takes spoken words and transcribes them into written words, it also has a keyboard on for typing messages.  When you visit Baytown stop by the Baytown Visitors Center, the proclamation is on display.

Dennis

On April 13, the Baytown Tourism volunteers took a trip to the Baytown Nature Center located in Baytown, Texas.   Do you like to hike?  How about guided one-hour and two-hour hikes.  How about a Full Moon hike at night so you can see the raccoons and opossums? Wonder if they have one on Halloween night.  Birding, did you know there are over 300 different species of birds that call Baytown home during the year.   There is a Birding challenge, and you only need to find 50 different species to win. This is a place to have a family picnic and a playground for the kids.  If you like to see nature in the wild or just would like to spend a day enjoying a family outing, Baytown Nature Center is the place to be. While the purpose of the trip is for the volunteers to experience the Nature Center firsthand.  One of our volunteers is deaf but there was an interpreter with us.  I can tell you that our tour guide worked well with the interpreter to make sure our volunteer understood everything that was said. I am posting this review on the Baytown Tourism site because it is another example of how Marisa Jennings and the team at Baytown Tourism Visitor’s center are working to make sure that our friends that visit Baytown will have a wonderful time. See you soon!!!

Dennis

On April 13, the Baytown Tourism volunteers took a trip to Eddie V. Gray Wetlands Education and Recreation Center located in Baytown, Texas.   A fantastic place if you are or are not a nature lover.  Some of the places to visit in Robert M. Craig Exhibit Hall are Gator World, Land of Milk and Honey, Coastal Connection Room, Wings Over Wetlands, and a snake exhibit.  But not to worry it is an exhibit hall and all the live animals are safely in exhibit containers. in Gator World you will find teenage alligators (they are just like any other teenager). The Land of Milk and Honey is all about honeybees. While the purpose of the trip is for the volunteers to experience the wetland firsthand.  One of our volunteers is deaf, but we had an interpreter for them.  I can tell you that our tour guide worked well with the interpreter to make sure our volunteer understood every word.   I am placing this review under Baytown Tourism because it shows the effort the Marisa Jennings and the team at the visitor’s center that we are deaf-friendly but the places we sent you are also deaf-friendly.  

Dennis

BAYTOWN TOURISM DEAF-FRIENDLY GEOTOUR  
  Baytown Tourism is focusing on being Deaf-Friendly, the latest accomplishment (launched at DeafNation Expo) is the Baytown (deaf-friendly) GeoTour. What is a GeoTour? A GeoTour is taking a geocaching adventure.  Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices, like your phone or a tablet. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container like a rock, brick, light switch) hidden at that location.    Download the Geocaching app to your device and click on it. You will see a map with the caches (they look like boxes). Select one of the boxes, this takes you to another page with information about that cache. You can then use the GPS information to navigate to that cache, but please do read the description, it will tell you about that cache and help you find it. And this is where deaf-friendly comes in, because of the efforts of Marisa Jennings and volunteers the description is in our language. The deaf and hard of hearing community can now (and only the caches placed by Baytown Tourism) hear the description of the cache in an ASL video. You can see a preview of the ASL videos by visiting the Baytown Tourism website.  (visitbaytown.com)  Click on the Geocaching button and then click on ASL GeoTour Translation this will take you to a page where you will find all the ASL videos. You still must come to Baytown to find the caches. I must add that my daughter and myself have found serval of the caches and it is fun and exciting. So, we will see you soon! Come by the Visitor Information Center located in the old Brunson Theater at 311 West Texas Avenue and tell us hello.    

Dennis

                                                Baytown tourism booth at DEAFNATION EXPO
  I just got back from DeafNation Expo with a great team of people, this year was our first year having a booth at the expo, but I do not think it will be the last year.   Our team members met some old friends and made new friends, and a great time was had by every one of our team members. I am looking forward to going back next year. I would like to thank especially our fearless leader, Marisa Jennings because it was her leadership, her desire, her vision, and her patience that made it possible for us to go to DeafNation Expo. It is her vision that the whole world would be deaf-friendly. I believe she will accomplish her dream, and her vision because she has the energy, the determination, and the kindness to see it accomplished.  Baytown Tourism is focusing on being Deaf Friendly and the latest accomplishment is the Baytown GeoTour.  What is a GeoTour?  A GeoTour is taking a geocaching adventure. Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. The deaf-friendly GeoTour was launched during the Expo. 

Dennis

I have been volunteering at the Baytown Visitors Center for a couple of months.    I had the privilege to volunteer during the Christmas parade, it was fun.  I love giving away things like sunglasses, nail files, candy, and information about Baytown.  The latest adventure, my daughter and I have set out on is the Baytown GeoTour.  What is a GeoTour?  It involves geocaching.  Geocaching is a real-life outdoor treasure hunting game.  You can use the GPS on your cell phone or tablet to navigate a set of GPS coordinates and then find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.   Geocaches can be in a small, midsize, or larger container, and they are many different shapes.   It is fun and gets you outside, so bring your family, and bring your friends, and see who can be the first to find the geocache at that location.   As always, the activities at the Baytown Visitor Center are deaf-friendly activities. I pay special attention to activities being deaf-friendly because I am hard of hearing, and I have other hearing problems.   I am telling you that you will be welcome at the visitor center with open arms.  And as of March or April the description of the geocaches that the Baytown Visitors Center placed will be in American Sign Language.  Talk, about being deaf-friendly!!!!!!!

Dennis

While most reviews are about events and happenings in the city, I will make my review about the staff of Baytown Tourism Visitor Center. I am hard of hearing and use sign language to help me understand what is being said.  A few days ago, I entered the Baytown Tourism Visitor Center office.  I signed (you sign) one of the staff signed (write). They then got paper and pencil to continue our conversation.  I do understand that there are a few staff members that do use sign language and others are learning to sign, also one volunteer is deaf.  I know that any deaf or hard of hearing person that enters the Visitor Center office looking for information the staff will communicate with you either with American Sign Language (which is preferred) or by getting pencil and paper and writing notes. They are working very hard to be a deaf-friendly organization because everyone is important.  

Carol B.

I recently attended volunteer training for Visit Baytown/Baytown Tourism. They make it clear in their goals that they aim to be a deaf friendly organization. They want their volunteers to be able to communicate with all visitors, including the deaf and hard of hearing. They provide access to American Sign Language training. I enjoyed learning a few signs during the training and look forward to learning more.

Monica

Baytown Tourism Center is all about inclusion and love for others regardless of who you are. I love this place and the people specially Ms. Jennings who has the passion of innovation, love and creativity for Baytown. 💜

April (Davis) Sanchez

I'm deaf, and a bird watcher :) 

I want to add one thing to knowing that you all are welcome and please come visit at Baytown, Texas. There's several Deaf events, will be adding more. There's are deaf friendly like you :)  Hopefully you can visit "Baytown, Tourism 311 West Texas Avenue, Baytown Texas 77520"