Volume 21 Issue 13

HOH-LD-News
Vol. 21, Issue 13
December 25, 2004

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Table of Contents
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- Article 1: A Silent Disability
- Article 2: Botox May Smooth Your Wrinkles and Stop the Ringing in Your Ears
- Article 3: Laurent Clerc Center Releases New CI Module
- Article 4: Airport Announcements to be Captioned?
- Classifieds
- Contact Information and Disclaimers

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Contact information and disclaimers are at the end of this newsletter.
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- Article 1: A Silent Disability
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Editor: Know someone who's hiding his hearing loss? Or withdrawing because it's just too difficult to understand what people are saying? Or maybe you know a family member or friend who just doesn't "get it". Here's a wonderful article that does a great job of revealing some important aspects of hearing loss. Do you know anyone you could share it with?

Reprinted with permission from the Star Tribune

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From the newsroom of the Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Tuesday, September 28, 2004 .....

A silent disability

Donna Halvorsen, Star Tribune Staff Writer

Donna Carlson avoids using the phone as much as possible, doesn't try to keep up with family conversations and hesitates to speak in group settings. She skips many concerts or other events, chooses restaurant tables where her back is to the wall and prefers driving alone. She also fakes a lot.

Carlson, 71, has a severe hearing loss. So when she was asked to be president of the St. Louis Park Women's Club, she realized that she wouldn't be able to hear people in the back of the room, or even sitting beside her, and certainly not behind her.

"Then I thought, Phyllis McQuaid did it, I can do it," she said.

On Oct. 5 Carlson, McQuaid and three other hearing-impaired women, club members in their 70s, will take their disabilities out of the closet in a Women's Club program, laced with humor, called "Can you hear me now?"

The program will let members know about their new president's disability and what they can do to help her and others who are hearing-impaired. It also will put a spotlight on hearing loss, which afflicts 28 million people nationwide, including a large number of older people.

These women are all physically active, mentally sharp and willing to tell jokes on themselves. But they say their disability is ignored, and while the five of them might be too scrappy to give up on life, others with hearing loss withdraw because their impairment makes life too difficult.

"I'm not going to quit, but there are a lot of lonely people out there who are simply afraid to go out in society because they can't hear," said McQuaid, 76, a former state legislator, St. Louis Park mayor and school board member who has a severe hearing loss.

They call hearing loss "the silent disability" because, unlike blind people who have white canes, most with hearing loss are noticeable only by their hearing aids, which may be hidden deep in their ear canals.

They may not speak at events or meetings. Or they may bluff their way through, worrying afterwards that they said something inappropriate.

"You nod a lot," said one.

"You feel dumb - really dumb," said another.

And that's with hearing aids. Many older people who could benefit from aids don't have them. Of 9 million Americans older than 65 with hearing loss, only 40 percent use hearing aids, according to the National Council on the Aging. Of 10 million people 45 to 64 with hearing loss, only 13 percent have aids. Denial, cost and vanity are among the barriers to hearing aid use, the council found in a large national study.

Cost represents a major issue for some; mid-range hearing aids cost about $2,000 each, and they have to be replaced every five years or so. Jane Gratton, 75, of Edina, who has had a severe hearing loss for 10 years, said she paid $6,300 for her two current hearing aids about three years ago.

Few health plans cover hearing aids, but untreated hearing loss in older people "is a serious and prevalent problem," the council said in its report. The study found that people who do not wear hearing aids are likelier to experience depression, anxiety, paranoia and emotional turmoil, but those who do reported better relations with family members, greater independence and better feelings about themselves.

The Hearing M'aids, as the five women call themselves, rehearsed their program at McQuaid's house one recent afternoon. Amid the laughter, they kept coming back to the seriousness of their disability. Life for them is difficult even with hearing aids, they said, partly because of public ignorance about hearing loss, and partly because of people's willingness to suffer silently, a mold they're trying to break.

"I think, as with many disabilities, there is a carryover from the days when people tried to hide their disabilities for fear of the stigma or discrimination," Carlson said.

Joyce Tibbs, 74, an artist and retired teacher, has a moderate hearing loss; she reads lips and has two aids. She tells people who don't want to get hearing aids "that it's nice to hear."

"I'm not ashamed to have them -- they help me," she said. "We depend [more] on our sight and our hearing for our enjoyment in life the older we get."

But it's hard work, and it wears the women out "because you're trying hard to understand and keep up and listen," said Joanne Keedy, 71, whose hearing began deteriorating five years ago. She continues to work part-time as a medical receptionist. Carlson, who worked as a personnel specialist in the St. Louis Park school system for 20 years, said her hearing has declined in the past 35 years. She depends on her residual hearing, hearing aids and lip-reading to hear.

Gratton has a speaker phone, and her husband listens in on her conversations, because she often has trouble hearing. "Some people I can understand, and some people I can't," Gratton said. "People naturally think that if they talk real loud, it'll be better, but it's not necessarily true."

McQuaid first got hearing aids in 1988 when she was elected to the Minnesota Legislature. She had difficulty hearing when she was in large rooms or when legislators spoke without using microphones.

Her hearing has declined increasingly to the point where she's deaf in one ear. She gave up volunteering at an elementary school, and she no longer sings because she can't hear her voice. She still volunteers as a patient representative at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, bowls, plays bridge, delivers Meals on Wheels and is active in her church.

Like the others, McQuaid often shies away from situations where hearing will be difficult, but she went with her daughter Joanne Hinderaker to the opening of the light rail system, and many people sought her out to talk. "Joanne told me what they said," McQuaid said. "She was my interpreter."

McQuaid relies on her dog, Rocky, to tell her when someone's at the front door. "He doesn't hear the phone," she said, then paused and added, "Well, he hears it."

"But he doesn't answer it," one of the women said, finishing the sentence. That left the punch line to Hinderaker, who said, "I just hate it when he doesn't pick up."

Hinderaker, who will moderate the program, became a catalyst for it after she attended a St. Paul workshop to learn how to help her mother. It had a dual message, she said: Hearing-impaired people need to get better at telling others what they need, and everyone around them should know how to meet those needs better.

"It was sort of like a news flash to me," she said. She and her seven siblings had been dealing with their mother's hearing loss for years, "but we don't talk about it in that way, how everybody needs to be trained."

It isn't just the hearing-impaired who lose when they withdraw from the world, Hinderaker told the group. "You're talking about a lot of creative energy that the group loses if you don't participate," she said. "It's an increasing problem in your generation and my generation, and none of us get it."

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------- Eye on Washington --------------------------------
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Stay informed and protect your rights! The Eye on
Washington (EOW) is a national advocacy ezine published by
the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) that focuses on
activities occuring on Capitol Hill that affect deaf and
hard of hearing civil rights.

The EOW is open to all, members and non-members. It is
distributed once a month, sometimes more.
http://www.nad.org/ezine/ecommadmin.html

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- Article 2: Botox May Smooth Your Wrinkles and Stop the Ringing in Your Ears
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Editor: I've seen several alleged remedies for tinnitus, but have yet to hear from anyone for whom the remedies have worked. So I'm a bit skeptical about treating tinnitus with Botox, but I'll try to keep an open mind. And I welcome any reports on successful or unsuccessful tinnitus treatment.

This article is reprinted with the permission of www.SeniorJournal.com

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Now there is a new health reason to use Botox that may be a good way to hide your vanity use of the product that makes you look better. A preliminary new study says it can stop the ringing in your ears.

Botox is best known as a way to remove wrinkles in the skin. The new research indicates that Botox injections may ease the irritation of tinnitus, otherwise know as ringing in the ears. Researchers caution that more study is needed, but initial results are promising.

Tinnitus, or the presence of noises (ringing, whistling, hissing, roaring, booming) in the ears, is a common complaint affecting an estimated 10-20 percent of the general population. Chronic, persistent tinnitus can affect one's ability to work, engage in social activities, and sleep. For some, the problem is much more harmful, affecting their mood with resulting mild to severe depression. Five percent of the general population are affected by tinnitus to a severity that it causes them to seek help.

The clinical causes of tinnitus have been explored in an effort to explain why this disorder affects individuals so differently, with some having only mild recognition of the symptom and others having true annoyance and more serious interference with their quality of life. Many experts now believe that tinnitus is affected by the autonomic nervous system.

Botox is well known as a remedy to skin wrinkles and frown lines, but many are not aware it is also used for more serious medical conditions, including strabismus, spasmodic altered voice production, failure of the voice muscles to relax, and cervical dystonia.

More recently, Botox has shown significant benefit through nonparalytic effects for problems including neuropathic pain and migraines. Specifically, in management of migraines, Botox is suspected to block not only acetylcholine, but inhibit release of other neurotransmitters and neuropeptides important in the autonomic pathway.

It was Botox's proven benefit in disease processes via blockage of autonomic pathways, and that a significant aspect of tinnitus is believed to be effected via the autonomic pathway, that lead researchers to examine whether Botox could possibly impact the perception of tinnitus.

The authors of "Evaluation of Botox in Treatment of Tinnitus," are Katrina R. Stidham MD with the California Ear Institute at San Ramon, Perry Solomon MD, Director-Bridges Medical Clinic-for Botox rx for Migraines and Hyperhydrosis, and Joseph B. Roberson MD, California Ear Institute and Let Them Hear Foundation, all from California.

Their findings [were] presented at the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO, [which was] held September 19-22, 2004, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York City, NY.

Learn more about the specialty and otolaryngic disorders at the AAO-
HNS Internet web site, http://www.entnet.org.

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---------- Hearing Loss Web "New to Hearing Loss" Info ---------
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We are happy to announce a new website section specifically for
people who are new to hearing loss. We have provided answers to
the questions we are most frequently asked by people with newly
identified hearing loss - and also to some questions people
don't ask, but should! ;-) Check it out at
http://www.hearinglossweb.com/Misc/new.htm. Please send
questions, comments, or suggestions to larry@hearinglossweb.com.
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- Article 3: Laurent Clerc Center Releases New CI Module
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Editor: Many readers will remember that it wasn't too many years ago that the culturally Deaf community was virtually 100% against cochlear implants (CIs). It's remarkable how that resistance has pretty much disappeared in the last few years. Even Gallaudet University, which has historically been a Deaf Culture "shrine", now accepts the CI as just another tool to help people deal with hearing loss.

Here's a press release from Gallaudet's Laurent Clerc Center announcing their new online module on listening training for CI recipients.

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'Listening' Module of Cochlear Implants E-Document Offered Online

A new module, "Training the Ear to Listen," of the KidsWorld Deaf Net E-Document, Cochlear Implants: Navigating a Forest of Information...One Tree at a Time, is now online in English at: http://clerccenter2.gallaudet.edu/KidsWorldDeafNet/e-docs/CI/ModuleM.html and in Spanish at: http://clerccenter2.gallaudet.edu/KidsWorldDeafNet/e-docs/CI-S/ModuleM.html.

The module includes sections on equipment troubleshooting, the stages of listening and speaking development, sign language as a support to listening, auditory-verbal therapy, and other related topics. Cochlear Implants: Navigating a Forest of Information...One Tree at a Time also includes modules on a variety of other topics, including candidacy, the decision-making process, considerations for the use of sign language for children with cochlear implants, and resources.

Cochlear Implants: Navigating a Forest of Information...One Tree at a Time is designed to assist parents and educators in navigating their way through the extensive "forest" of information about cochlear implants. It is written by Debra Nussbaum, the coordinator of the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center's Cochlear Implant Education Center, and can be found at: http://clerccenter2.gallaudet.edu/KidsWorldDeafNet/e-docs/CI/index.html. More information about KidsWorld Deaf Net can be found at: http://clerccenter2.gallaudet.edu/KidsWorldDeafNet/index.html.

Contact: Susan M. Flanigan
Telephone: 202-651-5340 (Voice/TTY)
E-mail: Susan.Flanigan@gallaudet.edu

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- Article 4: Airport Announcements to be Captioned?
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Editor: I think I understand disability rights legislation pretty well. But one thing that's always puzzled me is why airports, train stations, etc. are not required to caption their announcements. (If anyone has an answer to this, I'd love to hear it!)

Anyway, it's looking like announcement captioning may finally happen. Here's a report by Kelby Brick from the NAD's "Eye on Washington"

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David Nelson, a truly wonderful volunteer and leader in Washington DC, has been working with the NAD for a number of years to push for access in transportation - especially airline access. Recently, David and I attended a conference on this specific issue. Representatives from many airlines and disability groups attended the conference. The meeting was productive but very little progress was made regarding access related to deaf and hard of hearing air travelers. The best thing to come out of that meeting was that we learned (through a third party) that the Department of Transportation is seriously considering proposals to require access such as captioning and text announcements. We learned that they are in the process of hiring a consultant to do an economic analysis of the proposals. We view this as wonderful news as we have been hard at work for almost eight years to push for new rules that will provide access to deaf and hard of hearing air travelers. We'll definitely keep you posted on any new updates.

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- Classifieds
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Two Employment Opportunities appears in this issue.

Employment Opportunity 1
Director of Student Services
Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind (ISDB)
Gooding, ID

Employment Opportunity 2
Educational Interpreter positions
Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Jericho and Bennington, VT

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Employment Opportunity 1
Director of Student Services
Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind (ISDB)
Gooding, ID
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STARTING DATE:
(Anticipated) April 1, 2005

SALARY RANGE:
Negotiable-Commensurate with education and experience

BENEFITS:
Comprehensive fringe benefit package

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
* Master's Degree in Education (Deaf or Blind preferred), or Business Administration with direct school operations experience
* Three years teaching experience (Deaf or Blind preferred)
* Experience with personnel supervision and evaluation systems, problem solving, complaint resolution, and policy development
* Administrative Certification in field of Education
* Fluency in sign language or Braille communications

DUTIES:
Administer all programs within Student Services, including:
* Cottage Life Program (Residential environment)
* Student Health Center (Nursing staff & care providers)
* Students and Campus Staff Transportation (Land & Airlines)
* Student Activities (After school training and recreational)
* Post Secondary Transition Program (Job & Life skills training)
* Summer Work Experience Program

LOCATION:
ISDB is located in Gooding, Idaho (pop. 3,500), a small farming community at the foothills of the Sawtooth Mountain Range. The city of Gooding is a quiet, family oriented community. Abundant recreational and professional growth opportunities are available within a short driving distance. For more info about ISDB check our website at: www.isdb.state.id.us

APPLICATION PROCEDURES: Submit:
1. Letter of application
2. Copies of certification
3. Three letters of recommendation
4. Official transcripts
5. Resume

DEADLINE:
Open till filled

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Human Resources Department at 208-934-4457 (V/TTY)
or send email to: sherry.hann@isdb.idaho.gov
Successful candidate will be required to furnish a background check within three months of employment as per Idaho Code 33-130.
Hiring is done without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age or disability. In addition, preference may be given to veterans who qualify under state and federal laws and regulations. If you need special accommodations to satisfy testing requirements, please contact the HR Department.

Major Responsibilities:

1. Hire and train qualified staff to supervise students.
2. Conduct annual staff evaluation system based on job performance and growth.
3. Healthy, clean, and safe living environment for students who stay on campus during the week.
4. Comprehensive medical program to meet the needs of individual students.
5. Transportation program for students when they travel to and from school, including coordination of airline schedules and cost analysis.
6. Athletic program for boys and girls from elementary through high school.
7. Recreational program.
8. Student organizations in Cottage Life Program.
9. Employment program that provides opportunities for successful work experiences for high school students during summer vacation. Also, placement of seniors after graduation.
10. Guidance/counseling program for students as needed and required by state policies.
11. Budgets as assigned and provide input as budgets are developed.
12. In-service programs for staff in Students Services Department.
13. Comprehensive school activity calendar.
14. Behavior modification program in Cottage Life Program.
15. Public relations.
16. All other assigned duties at the discretion of the Superintendent.

Typical tasks performed:

1. Provide management, organization, guidance, and leadership for the Department of Student Services.
2. Develop appropriate relationship with students, parents, and staff.
3. Maintain good relations with the public.
4. Foster interdepartmental cooperation.
5. Provide appropriate environment for students served.
6. Communicate effectively with Superintendent and Administrative Leadership Team.
7. Develop departmental goals in accordance with laws, policies, regulations and the mission of ISDB.
8. Develop personal goals to meet employment needs and personal life needs.

Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind (ISDB)
Serving Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Blind and Visually Impaired Students of Idaho Since 1906

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Employment Opportunity 2
Educational Interpreter positions
Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Jericho and Bennington, VT
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Jericho, VT
Full-time in Jericho, VT for High School
Start date January 3rd, 2005

Part-time Bennington, VT for K-6 grades
2 hours per day

Qualifications: Fluency in American Sign Language and English; educational interpreting experience; completion of Interpreter Training program preferred; understanding of Deaf and Hard of Hearing students; knowledge of child development.

Please send resume to:
Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing,
209 Austine Dr.,
Brattleboro, VT 05301, 802-258-9519

email:bmassey@austine.pvt.k12.vt.us

Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is an EOE

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- Contact Information and Disclaimers
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