Volume 21 Issue 6

HOH-LD-News
Vol. 21, Issue 6
November 6, 2004

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Table of Contents
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- Article 1: Hard of Hearing Can Stay in Loop - Part 2
- Article 2: Cell phones and acoustic neuroma - Part 1
- Article 3: Disabilities act improved access to work, school, social events
- Article 4: 911 calls made over Internet often get lower priority
- 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: Hard of Hearing Can Stay in Loop - Part 2
By David G. Myers
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Editor: Regular readers will remember David Myers as the man who is working to loop America. He wants induction loops installed in all public facilities to provide better communications access to people with hearing loss.

Induction loops are simply large loops of wire that are typically installed under a carpet or behind an acoustic tile ceiling. They are driven by an amplifier and produce a magnetic field that drives the telecoil in a hearing aid. The effect of this simple technology is that a person can set her hearing aid to the telecoil position and pick up what's being said just as if she were talking on a phone.

For more information, please visit www.hearingloop.org.

This is part two of two parts.

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In another church, one woman, after switching on her telecoil and hearing sound "like I hadn't heard in years" broke into tears of joy and could not stop crying. Awakening at 4 a.m. the next morning and reflecting on what she had experienced, she cried some more. One pastor was initially disappointed to have no users of his church's new loop system. But eight months later the happy pastor had three long-absent hard of hearing users now attending again plus three newcomers who had sought out his newly accessible church. Moreover, members who purchase hearing aids in the future -- as more are now inspired to do -- know to have the inexpensive telecoil receiver included.

By equipping their clients with telecoils, our local audiologists have been a key part of the success of our community initiative. They also have shared in the pleasure.

"Never in my audiology career has something so simple helped so many people at so little cost," reports Jerry Owens, the owner of Lakeshore Hearing Centers.

The Holland-Zeeland initiative has had "a profound influence on the people I see. Nearly everyone I've seen who uses the loop system has had favorable results," notes James Walsh of the Holland Hearing Center. Telecoils and loop systems "transform hearing aids into 'personal communication systems,'" explains audiologist Karen Van Doorne of K.A. Van Doorne & Associates.

In response to a Grand Rapids Press article on the Holland-Zeeland's hearing initiative, Rich DeVos, founding chairman of the National Organization on Disability, sent me a note of congratulations and encouragement. Impressed by his kindness, I invited him out for coffee. Not long after, he invited his colleague Dr. Luis Tomatis to explore a possible extension of hearing aid compatible assistive listening to the churches and public facilities of Grand Rapids and beyond.

Happily, Grand Rapids is now well on its way to becoming a cool city for people with hearing loss. Late last month, Mayor George Heartwell, with support from two local audiologists who are past presidents of the Michigan Academy of Audiology, announced a new Grand Rapids hearing initiative from the City Commission's newly looped chambers.

Already, the DeVos Place, the DeVos Symphony Hall, and several college auditoriums and churches have installed hearing loops or have made plans to do so. (See hearingloop.org for more information, including a list of the looped facilities in Holland-Zeeland and in Grand Rapids.)

Kudos for Grand Rapids already are being heard. Juanita Wikman, the immediate past president of Michigan's hard of hearing persons organization (which has urged the installation of "assistive listening systems that broadcast sound directly through hearing aids"), has praised the new Grand Rapids initiative. So has Bonnie Vokits, director of the Lakeshore Deaf/Hard of Hearing Connection.

Those interested in learning more about how their homes, churches, or facilities might benefit from hearing aid compatible assistive listening are invited to a public information meeting on Monday at DeVos Place, from 11 a.m. to noon. One of the speakers, Terry Portis, executive director of Self-Help for Hard of Hearing People, plans to announce the formation of a Grand Rapids area chapter of this organization.

With the technology now spreading to other communities in the Lakeshore region, West Michigan is leading the way to a new future for people with hearing loss -- one where hearing aids have doubled functionality (as microphone amplifiers and as wireless loudspeakers).

When that day comes, hearing aid use will increase. The stigma of hearing loss will diminish, as will the cost of hearing aids. Support for insurance and Medicare/Medicaid funding for hearing aids will grow.

Our world will then be a much friendlier place for the increasing millions of Americans who struggle to hear and to connect. And West Michigan will have led the way.

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- Article 2: Cell phones and acoustic neuroma - Part 1
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Editor: So, can cell phones cause cancer or not? I don't think the issue is really decided yet, but here's a report on a study that finds a link between cell phone use and acoustic neuromas. (The article explains a bit about acoustic neuromas; more information is available at http://anausa.org/)

This is Part one of two parts.

Reprinted with permission from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

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Study finds cell phones could cause noncancerous tumors

By Nancy McVicar Health Writer

People who have used cell phones for at least 10 years might have an increased risk of developing a rare brain tumor, according to a study published Wednesday in the international journal Epidemiology.

A team of researchers at Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, found almost a fourfold increase of the tumors, known as acoustic neuromas, on the side of the head where the phone was most often held.

The work was done as part of the World Health Organization's cell phone research agenda, and experts in the field said it must be taken seriously and is likely to rekindle consumer worries about the risks of using the phones.

"The Karolinska researchers are respected around the world, and this study will force health agencies to take a fresh look at mobile phone risks," said Louis Slesin, publisher of Microwave News, who has been covering the industry since its early days. "This study should put an end to the industry's call to stop mobile phone health research."

At least one past study conducted for the cell phone industry also had suggested a link between the phones and this type of tumor. But cell phone industry officials on Wednesday said the Swedish research is only one study and that no conclusions can be drawn from it.

The study, involving 150 acoustic neuroma patients and 600 healthy people, is one of at least six studies of possible links between cell phone use and acoustic neuromas. Most of those studies had fewer long-term users than the Karolinska study.

Acoustic neuromas are slow-growing noncancerous tumors that develop on a nerve linking the brain and the inner ear. The most common first symptom is hearing loss, but as the tumor grows it can push against brain tissue. If not treated, it can be life threatening. Such tumors are very rare, occurring in about one person per 100,000 in the general population.

"It's a natural place to look [for a problem] because this is the area of the head that is exposed," said Anders Ahlbom, director of the Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. When a cell phone is in use, it emits radio-frequency radiation, some of which is absorbed in areas of the head closest to the handset.

To conduct the three-year study, the Karolinska researchers interviewed people who had developed the tumors -- asking about their cell phone use, how many different phones they had used, the makes and models, duration of calls, whether they used a hands-free set and on which side of the head they held the phone.

Researchers said they found no association between the tumors and the amount of use measured in hours or cumulative number of calls, but rather on the length of time those in the study had been regular users of cell phones. Regular use was defined as an average of at least once a week during six months or more.

Ahlbom said in a phone interview that the data are strong and statistically significant, but the findings must be confirmed by follow-up studies. He said the mechanism by which cell-phone radiation might cause tumors remains unknown.

Dr. David Savitz, chairman of the department of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, Chapel Hill, said the new findings "suggest something a little bit troublesome."

"It is significant in the sense that it is the first well-designed study to show this," Savitz said. "There was an earlier study that came out, but it didn't have as many people with long-term use."

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- Article 3: Disabilities act improved access to work, school, social events
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Editor: I'm starting to see more ADA-bashing again. You know the story - the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects a bunch of lazy parasites who don't want to work. But I also saw this great article from the Ann Arbor News, which presents a thoughtful and realistic assessment of the ADA in the real world. They were kind enough to allow me to share it with you.

Reprinted with permission.

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From the newsroom of the Ann Arbor News, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Sunday, August 1, 2004 .....

Disabilities act improved access to work, school, social events

BY TRACY DAVIS News Staff Reporter

The Americans with Disabilities Act, the 1990 legislation aimed at improving access to businesses, services and jobs for the disabled, celebrated its 14th anniversary this past week.

The News talked with Michigan Ability Partners Chief Executive Officer Susan Hornfeld about the landmark legislation and its impact on the rights of the disabled.

Michigan Ability Partners is an Ann Arbor nonprofit agency founded in 1984 to provide housing support, and vocational and financial services to persons with varying levels of disabilities.

Q. Can you describe how the ADA came about?

A. Essentially, there was a growing awareness in the country that accessibility issues were becoming more and more important, and there was a realization that there were 54 million people with disabilities in this country. They were having trouble getting to work, getting into work, into schools, libraries, buildings ... so the Americans With Disabilities Act was a way to help improve access to those things.

Q. What does it do?

A. It has a few parts to it. I think there are two parts of the law - there's the law and the spirit of the law. It engendered a lot of fear on the part of community. But the goal was to eliminate unnecessary standards and rules that deny people access. For example, if you have to sign a piece of paper upstairs in person, and you can't get up the stairs, then you can't sign that piece of paper.

The law requires you to look for alternatives when it's not practical to change your physical structure and building. Transportation is a huge issue. Using public transportation is pretty much out in most places and many people with disabilities can't drive. There's been more money put into that than anything else.

There are a lot of myths about the ADA that may scare people. (When the law was passed) everybody just thought, 'Maybe I can stay under the radar because it's going to cost me a lot.' But what they wanted was for business and government and service agencies to think of creative ways to accommodate people with disabilities. If you're a small business on the second story of an old building, and it would cost you $35,000 to put in an elevator, that's not reasonable and the law recognizes that. People said, 'So, I'm going to have to have a sign language person on my staff?' No. It's as simple as common sense. You can write notes (to a hearing impaired customer.) Restaurants asked if they would need a Braille menu. No, because the server can read the menu to someone.

Sears did an interesting study where they looked at 436 accommodations they created in all their stores. They discovered that 69 percent of them cost nothing to do, 28 percent cost less than $1,000 and the other 3 percent cost more than $1,000. And I don't think people realize barriers, ramps, that kind of thing, you don't have to do it all at once. You can have a back door ramp that's kind of small. Next year if profits are better, you can improve on that.

As long as you have a plan for how you are going to make business accessible that meets the spirit of law.

Q. How has it changed or improved life for those who are disabled?

A. When you look at the progress reports that have been promulgated for the ADA, people with physical disabilities were able to point out many ways their lives have changed. For people with mental disabilities, there are very few ways their lives have changed.

The other blank spot is in employment. In 1990, 70 percent (of disabled people) were unemployed; today 70 percent of people with disabilities are unemployed. That's really bad. I think that's because it's much more difficult to integrate your work setting than to make an architectural change. They did build some pretty nice incentives for employers. Small businesses have an incentive program where they can get up to $5,000 in tax credits and $15,000 in deductions. And they can spread it over time.

Q. Do you ever see a day when we won't need the ADA?

A. If the spirit of the law can be integrated into the fabric of the business and service communities, then you don't really need the law. It's not generating tons of lawsuits, it's trying to raise awareness. It does have some teeth to it, but in our community anyway there's been a lot of responsiveness to it. I think there are more technological advances that might make it unnecessary. Technology can do a lot. More people can work from home, for example.

There are lots of ways we can talk about making it more cost effective and helping many more people get employed. There's a huge disincentive for the disabled community to work. A change in the laws would be 18 times more help than ADA.

People with disabilities are restricted with how much they can make and still receive assistance, including health care. They can't make more than $9,720 per year. If you make more ... you are cut off from benefits and from health care. And obviously that's not very much money. In Ann Arbor, a one-bedroom apartment is $620 a month. That leaves you $121 a month to eat, get around, pay the gas and the electric bill. And if people lose health insurance, the jobs they have usually don't pay for it. And they have a greater need for it because they are disabled.

If there were some more reasonable laws about receiving benefits ... a lot of people would be better off if they were working.

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- Article 4: 911 calls made over Internet often get lower priority
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Editor: We've been following the explosion of Voice over IP (VoIP) phone service since it entered the mainstream, and we've warned our readers that there are some drawbacks to the service. One is that 911 systems can't automatically detect the caller's location. Now it seems that issue has been resolved, and at least one VoIP service provider is incorporating the new technology.

Reprinted with permission.

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ST. PAUL (AP) - Emergency calls made using new Internet telephone services ring in through a emergency line and often aren't answered immediately, according to an official who runs Ramsey County's largest 911 emergency call center. Fred Fischer, a St. Paul police officer, added that the Internet emergency calls usually are more difficult to handle because the 911 operator must ask the identity and location of the caller. In a normal 911 call, that information automatically pops up when the operator answers the call.

"The benefit of the 911 system is that we know your location in the event that you can't speak to us," Fischer said. "We don't get that with the Internet calls."

Conventional wired phones are being displaced by a new technology called Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP. VOIP uses a high-speed Internet connection to provide phone service instead of a conventional telephone line. But the technology is creating some problems for 911 operators.

VOIP service, which provides extensive or unlimited local and long-distance calling at discounted prices, converts the voice into digital bits that are transmitted over the public Internet or a private data network. The bits are converted back into a traditional phone signal just before the call reaches its destination.

Emergency officials say Vonage and AT&T's Call Vantage service have the difficulties Fischer describes, while Time Warner Cable's new Internet phone service doesn't.

Vonage didn't return a phone call to the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. AT&T said it's working on the problem.

"We recognize there are concerns out there, and we will resolve them," said Kerry Hibbs, an AT&T spokesman in Dallas. "We make very clear to our customers that our Call Vantage Internet phone service does not work the same as traditional landline 911."

The Federal Communications Commission is expected to rule in the next few months on whether Internet phone service should be regulated. If the FCC decides VOIP should be regulated, it must set up requirements for services such as 911, said Steve Seitz, spokesman for the National Emergency Number Association, a Washington professional organization for 911 operators.

At the same time, the FCC is expected to tell regional Bell telephone companies such as Qwest how much access to their 911 call-handling networks they must provide to VOIP companies. Qwest has told the FCC it would rather have the telephone and VOIP companies work out their own 911 policy, said Mary LaFave, director of public policy for advanced services, based in Denver.

Technical improvements for VOIP companies are being developed by Intrado Inc. of Longmont, Colo., which helps Vonage and AT&T connect their VOIP 911 calls to emergency call centers in the nontraditional way. Intrado, one of about a half-dozen such 911 intermediary firms nationwide, said it hopes to introduce a new service next year that will help VOIP providers connect to the traditional 911 calling network.

Such changes can't come soon enough for Nancy Pollock, executive director of the Metropolitan 911 Board, a St. Paul organization that oversees 911 service for the seven-country metropolitan area.

She's been upset by occasional 911 lapses, such as the routing of 911 Internet telephone calls to the wrong answering location.

"It's fairly misleading, in our opinion, to say that all Internet telephone service is 911 compatible," she said.

But some Internet calling is 911-compatible. Time Warner Cable's new Internet phone service, which is being tested and should be available within 90 days, routes 911 calls via Qwest's conventional 911 network to the nearest call center. As a result, the caller's name, address and phone number automatically appear on the 911 operator's computer screen.

That's mostly because Time Warner has agreed, for now, to be regulated by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission and has been certified by the commission as a company authorized to compete with Qwest for local telephone customers. That designation gives Time Warner access to a special Qwest call routing network for 911 calls.

For now, emergency officials want consumers to understand that VOIP 911 calls may not be as good as they think.

"VOIP is a wonderful thing, and it allows you to make long-distance calls dirt cheap," Fischer said. "But I don't think the sellers of those services always make their customers aware that they are not getting true 911 service."

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- Classifieds
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