October
2006 - To
Which World Do You Belong?
October
2006 - From ALDAcon 2006
- Dr. Lucy Miller's Poignant Story - Where Do I Fit In?
October
2006 - ALDAcon 2006
Presentation - Coaching and Late Onset Hearing Loss - A Partnership that
Works
December
2006 - Maryland School for the Deaf Considers Accepting
Hearing Students
December
2006 - The Night Before HOH Christmas - an adaptation
of the traditional poem.
January
2007 - Pros and Cons of Sign Language
January
2007 - Deafness and the Riddle of Identity
January
2007 - Deaf children without barriers
February
2007 - Documentary chronicles 200 years of deaf life
in America
February
2007 - Plans for SD deaf town scrapped
February
2007 - People Who "Get It"
March
2007 - Silence in a Hearing World
April
2007 - I Can Hear You Now
May
2007 - New Findings Uncover Disparity in Attitudes
About Hearing Loss
May 2007 - Deaf
pianist imagines sound
May 2007 - Hearing
Loss Negatively Affects Relationships
June 2007 -
Playing in a Festival Orchestra
September
2007 -
Guitar Hero: Suddenly, he couldn't hear the music for
the noise
October 2007 - Hearing-impaired comedian
encourages communication
October 2007 - Here's Denise Portis'
"Between a Rock and a Hard Place"
January 2008 -
Untreated Hearing Loss Impacting
American Youth
March 2008 - Better Hearing Institute Publishes
Legal Rights Guide for Individuals with Hearing Loss
March 2008 -
House technology helps hearing-impaired lawmaker
April 2008 - Have hearing loss? Group offers help with daily living
April 2008 - Absenteeism Higher
Among Hearing Impaired People
May 2008 - People with Hearing Loss Miss Sounds
of Friends and Family
May 2008 -
Hearing Impairment Appears Associated With Vision
Problems in Elderly
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2006
Sergei
Kochkin, an American hearing expert, has carried out various studies of
hearing-impaired Americans and their use of hearing aids (the MarkeTrak
Surveys). In his 2005 survey (MarkeTrak VII) he found that more than 31
million Americans were hearing-impaired - corresponding to more than
10.5 per cent of the American population. More than 24 million of them
did not have a hearing aid and only about 23.5 percent of
hearing-impaired Americans actually use hearing aids. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2006
WWHT-FM
(Hot 107.9) morning producer Geoff Herbert has trouble taking calls from
listeners. Sometimes, he misunderstands what hosts Marty and Shannon are
saying to him. "Recently, Marty said something about Duke
University and I thought he said something about Jewish people,"
Herbert says. "Sometimes, it's so off-base, it's funny." Even
if he didn't call himself "DeafGeoff" on the air, there would
be little doubt that Herbert is bringing something quite exceptional to
Syracuse morning radio. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 2006
Getting deaf teens to sing Bach is: (a) Exploitative and voyeuristic. (b)
Culturally inclusive and respectful. (c) A celebration of failure and
chaos. (d) A celebration of determination and hope. (e) Art. As any good
test-taker knows, once you're pretty sure that certain answers can't be
right, you simply settle for whatever's left. Art it is.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2006
Editor: It
seems that almost a third of Scots are reluctant to wear hearing aids,
because they think it would make them seem old or disabled. I've never
seen numbers reported for the US, but I bet they're at least as high!
Here's the press release from Hear-it Press
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fear of being
labelled old or disabled makes the Scots reluctant to seek treatment for
hearing problems.
According to
a survey on hearing loss in Scotland, around 29% of Scots think hearing
aids would make them look old. More importantly, almost a third of Scots
believe hearing aids would make them look disabled and would not wear a
hearing aid even if they needed one.
The Scottish
survey highlights the stigma surrounding hearing loss and the use of
hearing aids. Although most hearing problems can easily be helped, people
are often unaware that they have a problem, or they are in denial about
it.
It is
estimated that 4 million people in the UK could benefit from a hearing
aid. Hearing aids can help a person with a hearing loss at any age and are
more effective if fitted early.
Deafness
Research UK has launched a campaign to encourage people to admit the
problem and seek early help. The campaign aims to help people recognise
the early signs of hearing loss and what they can do about it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By
Michael Gergley
October
2006
To
which world do you belong, the hearing of the deaf? When asked this
question I would have to say, "Neither. I'm between two worlds. I'm
hard of hearing." And although my primary means of communication is
oral, I don't identify with the hearing world. Alternately although I
have a severe hearing loss and use assistive listening devices such as a
hearing aid, my residual hearing leaves me feeling I don't belong in the
deaf community, either. So I'm left as the lyrics to a favorite song of
mine say to ponder, "Where do I belong?"
Ironically
enough, I have 'heard' the answer, not in some lecture or after reading
some book on hearing loss. Nor was it a one-time happening where a tiny
light bulb went on in my head, revealing in full color and sound where
indeed I DID and DO belong. It HAS and WILL continue to be a process of
self-discovery for me.
So
what does all this mean for my everyday challenges to find answers and
have my unique needs met? Perhaps the best personal experience I can
share was during a discussion on hearing loss during my graduate degree
studies working towards my Masters Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling.
Many hearing loss related issues were spoken about, but some, like being
deaf and being hard of hearing, were grouped together as if their needs
were the same. I took advantage of this opportunity to educate others
about my unique world. And though I still sometimes feel between two
worlds and I seem to always have to educate somebody else, in my world
is where I belong.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December
2006
Since
its founding in 1868, the Maryland School for the Deaf has been
cloistered from the wider world. Students walk a picturesque campus of
green lawns and old brick buildings, speak American Sign Language and
enjoy their own culture. Now the school is considering a radical step
that could end that segregation: a proposal to accept a limited number
of hearing students. The school's superintendent says it should think
about admitting hearing students to ensure that enrollment in years to
come will remain large enough to be viable. . . . But more young deaf
children are getting implants that allow them some degree of hearing
and, unlike a century ago, the majority of deaf students are going to
regular public schools. The trend worries some educators who wonder if
deaf culture and American Sign Language will dwindle away as fewer
children attend schools for the deaf and fewer learn to sign. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January
2007
But
the "not deaf enough" issue is alive and well among deaf
scholars, students, and activists. Even though Fernandes may have
exaggerated that accusation to bolster her own position, and even though
her detractors denied its relevance, the charge formed at least part of
the subtext of students' anger and is a topic of debate within the deaf
community. Now that passions have been spent and an interim president,
Robert R. Davila, appointed, it might be useful to examine what deaf
identity might be and how that identity fits in with current notions of
other identities based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and so on.
Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2007
You may have heard of plans to create near Sioux
Falls, SD, a town in which sign language was the common language. The
plans have been in the works for years and for a while things were
rolling along. Now those plans have been scrapped and the promoters are
leaving the state. Among the reasons cited for the change of plans are
" declining
enrollment at South Dakota School for the Deaf and the rapidly declining
deaf and signing population in Sioux Falls because of changes at
Communication Service for the Deaf." Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 2007
THE SUN ROSE ONE SATURDAY MORNING THE SAME AS ANY
OTHER, EXCEPT THAT I AWOKE DEAF. It came without warning, as if awaking in
a Kafka nightmare: nothing but an incessant painful scream in my left ear.
It sounded as if my ear were pressed against a powerful blown-out Marshall
electric guitar amplifier roaring at full-bore. The slightest sound was
magnified and distorted beyond hurt to an excruciating, overdriven rage. I
could not speak above a whisper. My own voice, my own footsteps, were
intolerably loud and painful. Sounds were so distorted -- as if I were
inside a trash can -- that it was difficult to comprehend speech through
my other ear. If that were not enough, the room in my living nightmare
shifted like the deck of a ship, heaving me around in a disoriented, dizzy
daze. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March 2008
Rep. Bob Smith may be the chattiest guy down at
the state Capitol. And darned proud of it. "I can't hear anything, so I
might as well just keep talking," the Republican from Watkinsville jokes.
You heard right: Smith, chairman of one of the most powerful subcommittees
in the House and gladhander of governor, security guard and everyone in
between, has a profound hearing impairment. "If I take these out," he
says, pointing to the hearing aids that nestle inside and behind both of
his ears, "I'm about 75 percent gone." He wouldn't dare risk it. It's not
just that Smith, 55, is gregarious by nature. ("He's the most important
person in the Capitol - just ask him," snickers good friend and fellow
Rep. Jeff Lewis, a Republican from White.) The five-term House veteran
also is making up for lost time. After nearly a decade of having to work
harder just to keep up, Smith last year took a big stride forward in what
he is able to hear and do, thanks to some sophisticated advances in audio
technology in the House chamber. And he has no intention of going back.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2008
Elderly patients, especially those who have had
cataracts or have glaucoma, should be tested for other comorbidities,
including hearing loss, researchers suggested here at the 2008 Annual
Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).
"The actual likelihood of having a combined impairment is at least twice
that [which is] expected," said Marilyn Schneck, PhD, Researcher, Smith-Kettlewell
Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, California, and a member of the
program committee of ARVO. "This holds true over a range of definitions of
hearing and vision impairment and ocular disease status." In a poster
presentation here on April 29, Dr. Schneck described a study of 446
patients who participated in a hearing screening test at the second
follow-up after a Smith-Kettlewell vision study. The patients' mean age
was 79.9 years (range, 67.0-107.1 years), and 43% of the patients were
male.
Full Story
