Volume 21 Issue 7

HOH-LD-News
Vol. 21, Issue 7
November 13, 2004

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Table of Contents
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- Article 1: People With Disabilities Give Unprecedented Support to President Bush
- Article 2: Cell phones and acoustic neuroma - Part 2
- Article 3: Researchers Examine How Family Life Is Affected by Children Who Are Deaf
- Article 4: Advanced Bionics HiRes 90K Implant Distribution Resumed
- 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: People With Disabilities Give Unprecedented Support to President Bush
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Editor: One of the big surprises of Election 2004 was increased support for President Bush from members of many minority groups. Included within those groups is the disability community, a majority of whose members voted for the incumbent! Here's the press release from the National Organization on Disability.

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November 9, 2004

Pre-election survey's 6.5 percent winning margin reflects a dramatic break from past voting

Washington, DC -- In a dramatic shift in support toward a Republican presidential candidate, a clear majority of voters with disabilities chose George W. Bush over Sen. John Kerry in last week's national election. According to a survey conducted by telephone between October 29 and November 1, 2004 by Harris Interactive, likely voters with disabilities preferred President George W. Bush over Senator John Kerry by 52.5 percent to 46 percent. One percent of likely voters with disabilities preferred Ralph Nader.

"It's a major break from the past that I think comes as a surprise to almost everyone," said N.O.D. President Alan Reich. "It's a very interesting result that many find confounding especially given past voting patterns, but there were clearly new dynamics at play this year."

"Concerns over terrorism and over personal and national security--issues that were not factors in past elections-- were very large factors this year. And the strength of the turnout among conservative voters undoubtedly brought more Republican-leaning people with disabilities to the polls than voted in the past. Not to be ignored is the strength of the senior vote, and many in our community are seniors. So the net result of votes cast by people with disabilities was the same as what we saw nationally, only more so. Still, it's an unexpected result," Reich said.

Reich also said that overall turnout by voters with disabilities was an additional factor that may have helped President Bush. Turnout among likely voters with disabilities was estimated by Harris to be 52 percent, significantly higher than the 2000 voter turnout estimate of 41 percent.

Nationally, President Bush won the popular vote by a margin of just 2.5 percent: 50.5 percent to 48 percent. His winning margin among voters with disabilities, according to the survey taken just prior to the election, was 6.5 percentage points. In past presidential elections, people with disabilities have consistently supported Democrats over Republicans by solid majorities. According to Harris Interactive, in 2000, Vice President Al Gore was preferred 56 to 38 percent by likely voters over then-Governor George W. Bush. Bill Clinton carried the disability vote 69 percent to 23 percent over Senator Dole in 1996, and 52 percent to 29 percent over President H.W. Bush in 1992.

"It would be a mistake to assume that the election results represent a permanent, fundamental shift in the voting behavior of people with disabilities," Reich concluded. "The needs are great and the votes of Americans with disabilities must be earned."

The poll results are part of a larger National Organization on Disability survey project studying voter preferences, issues of concern, and barriers to voting during this election season. This survey project has been made possible by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Methodology

The Harris Poll was conducted by Harris Interactive by telephone within the continental United States between October 29 and November 1, 2004 among a nationwide cross section of 1,509 likely voters including 253 likely voters with disabilities. Likely voters were defines as U.S. adults who are registered to vote and say they are "absolutely certain to vote and also included those who had already voted in this election. Figures for age, sex, race, education, number of adults, number of voice/telephone lines in the household, region and size of place were weighted where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population.

In theory, with a probability sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results for the likely voters sample have a statistical precision of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points of what they would be if the entire population of likely voters had been polled with complete accuracy. The sampling error for the sub-sample of likely voters with disabilities is plus or minus 6 percentage points.

The National Organization on Disability, founded in 1982, promotes the full and equal participation and contribution of America's 54 million men, women and children with disabilities in all aspects of life. N.O.D. is a nonpartisan organization. For more information, visit www.nod.org.

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- Article 2: Cell phones and acoustic neuroma - Part 2
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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 two 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

Dr. Henry Lai, research professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, also said the Karolinska study is not the first to show a link between cell phones and acoustic neuromas.

"Another Swedish researcher, Dr. [Lennart] Hardell found similar results in 2002," Lai said, "so this is, in effect, a replication. I think the data are quite solid and are cause for concern on long-term cell phone use."

Lai's own research found DNA breaks in the brain cells of animals exposed to radio-frequency radiation, results that were first published in 1994, and have been repeated by others, he said.

"We looked at DNA damage in animals, not in humans, and found that cell phone radiation can damage DNA," he said. The body's immune system has the ability to repair DNA breaks, but sometimes it can make a mistake and cause a mutation, which could be the first step toward cancer, Lai said.

Sam Milham of Olympia, Wash., an epidemiologist and pioneer in studying the effects of electromagnetic radiation on humans, said it usually takes 20 years or more for solid tumors to develop.

"I'm actually astonished that they found anything like this early," Milham said. "If that energy can do that to normal nerve tissue cells, what can it do to adjacent brain cells? I think it's the tip of a big iceberg, and the peak could be at 25 years past exposure.

"What's really alarming is that in the last five years an enormous number of people started using cell phones, including kids, so I think this is just the beginning of it. I hope I'm wrong."

According to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association's Web site, updated daily, there are more than 170 million wireless subscribers in the United States.

The safety of cell phones was first called into question by the death of a Florida woman, Susan Reynard of Madeira Beach, from a brain tumor. In January 1993, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel published a story about a lawsuit filed by her husband, David, alleging that the cellular phone he bought her while she was pregnant caused or accelerated the growth of the tumor that killed her. The case was later dismissed for lack of scientific evidence.

At the time the suit was filed, the cell phone industry association, the CTIA, said thousands of studies had been done showing the phones were safe, but then was not able to provide any. The industry pledged to spend $25 million on research to prove the phones are safe.

At least three federal agencies -- the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency -- have roles in regulating radio-frequency radiation, but only recently has the federal government committed funds to studying the cell phone issue. Those studies are not expected to be completed for five to seven years.

Dr. George Carlo, an epidemiologist then working at George Washington University School of Medicine, coordinated the industry-supported project, which began in the mid-1990s. When the money ran out in 2000, Carlo said, more research was needed because one study showed the risk of acoustic neuroma was 50 percent higher in people who used cell phones for six years or more, and that there appeared to be a correlation between brain tumors on the right side of the head and the use of the phones on that side.

Carlo could not be reached on Wednesday, but the CTIA issued a statement on the Karolinska findings.

"This is just one study on this particular subject and no conclusions can be drawn from it," said spokesman John Walls. "The wireless industry agrees that more research is needed in this area to provide definitive answers to any questions that might still exist. Numerous independent scientific bodies have conducted research on possible health effects from using wireless phones and it is widely accepted that no conclusive link can be made."

Mays Swicord, director of electromagnetic energy research at Motorola in Plantation, one of the world's largest manufacturers of wireless products, said the Karolinska study has to be taken in context alongside 1,300 other peer-reviewed publications on radio frequency radiation and health. No consistent evidence has been observed for an increased risk of cancer, he said.

Swicord said the Swedish study findings eventually will be pooled with similar studies under way in 12 other countries as part of the so-called INTERPHONE study, an international collaboration coordinated by WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Nancy McVicar can be reached at nmcvicar@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4593.

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- Article 3: Researchers Examine How Family Life Is Affected by Children Who Are Deaf
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Editor: It's interesting to stop for a moment and reflect on the history of the "hearing loss movement". SHHH, the first and largest organization for hard of hearing people, is just celebrating its 25th birthday. ALDA came along some years later. We started our website and this newsletter five years ago, because virtually all of the hearing loss information we found online was about being culturally Deaf. Hard of hearing and late-deafened folks currently enjoy a wealth of resources that was unavailable just a few years ago.

We're starting to see a similar expansion of awareness and resources for others who are affected by hearing loss - spouses, kids, parents, etc. We think that's wonderful news! Here's a story from bhNEWS about the effects of a child's hearing loss on the child's family.

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In an August 5, 2004 report from the Kansas City infozine, it was reported that two University of Kansas researchers have reviewed seven years' worth of research on families of children who are deaf and have concluded that, although service providers normally focus on the children, everyone in a family is affected by the child's disability.

In Lawrence, Kansas Ann Turnbull, professor of special education, and Carla Jackson, clinical instructor in speech pathology, had their review published in the spring 2004 issue of Topics in Early Childhood Special Education. Turnbull and Jackson reviewed 17 academic articles published between 1995 and 2002. They wanted to know how the presence of a child who is deaf affects family life in four general areas: parenting, relationships among family members, relationships of the family to others in the social network and access to services.

Two or three children out of a thousand are born deaf or hard of hearing, 90 percent of them to parents who hear normally. The quality of family communication is heavily influenced by everyone's willingness to employ one of the eight communications systems now in common use with people who are deaf, according to the research Turnbull and Jackson reviewed.

Families may experience some isolation as other people pull away after the birth of a child who is deaf. At the same time, the newborn's family may hesitate to engage with the deaf community or attend deaf cultural events. The research review by Turnbull and Jackson found that as parents search for services, they may not find doctors helpful. And in their first years there's a scarcity of teachers for children who are deaf.

Many of the studies reviewed by the KU researchers involved few families. So Jackson is conducting a national survey of 200 families to assess the degree to which the deafness of one member has impacted them in the four areas. Among the findings reported in the articles that Jackson and Turnbull looked at:

a. Families of children who are deaf report improved problem-solving skills.
b. Children who are deaf are less likely than hearing children to maintain a conversation to develop an idea introduced by someone else.
c. Family members who can hear often don't share a deaf child's preferred mode of communication.
d. Parents who have frequent contact with adults who are deaf are more responsive to a child who is deaf
e. but only 10 percent of hearing parents have that contact.
f. Parents who have lots of contact with other parents of children who are deaf, as well as with adults who are deaf, bond with children who are deaf better.
g. Topping the list of things hearing parents do with a child who is deaf is dealing with hearing loss. Working on speech skills comes in second.
h. Mothers who are deaf are better than hearing mothers at getting a deaf child's attention because they use more physical cues to do so.
i. A third of the families in one survey reported negative changes in social relationships after the birth of a child who is deaf.
j. Only one in five doctors was described, in one survey, as "very helpful" by parents of children who are deaf.
k. In a 16-state survey, only 30 percent of early-intervention sites for children who are deaf had a teacher on staff for the children.

Deafness may be the most profound sensory loss. For families, there can be considerable social loss as well, Turnbull and Jackson write in their paper. Such families may spend a lot of time "overcoming barriers to full inclusion in the hearing and/or deaf community."

Nevertheless, the families, given their responsibility, can't afford to become dispirited, Turnbull and Jackson write. Their paper quotes the mother of a 2-year-old: "Here you bring home what you think is going to be a perfectly normal baby, and then you find out - wow, this child can't hear my voice. - The whole family has to kind of give."

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- Article 4: Advanced Bionics HiRes 90K Implant Distribution Resumed
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Editor: Advanced Bionics recently halted distribution of their current cochlear implants because of concerns over moisture contamination of the internal components. It seems that those problems have been quickly resolved, as distribution of their HiRes 90K has resumed. Here's the announcement.

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Advanced Bionics is pleased to inform you that we are resuming distribution of the HiRes 90K(r) implant. We understand that our decision to voluntarily recall devices resulted in the postponement of many implant surgeries, and in some instances caused unnecessary concern about the reliability of our cochlear implant products. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or worry our decisions caused. Reliability is of paramount importance to us all, and we believe that our actions were in our customers' best interest.

The HiRes 90K implant was introduced over a year ago and since then more than 2,600 have been implanted. The HiRes 90K(r) cumulative survival rate (the industry standard measure for reliability) is 99.2% at one year. To view a copy of our Implant Safety and Reliability Report, please see http://www.cochlearimplant.com/printables/ISARR_2004.pdf

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- Classifieds
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One Event, one Travel Opportunity, and one Employment Opportunity appear in this issue. (Ads appear after this brief table of contents.)

Event 1
Jewish Deaf Congress Conference 2005
Tampa, Florida
July 3 to 10, 2005

Travel Opportunity 1
Cruise for CI Users
From Los Angeles to Hawaii
January 19 to February 3, 2005

Employment Opportunity 1
Customer Service Representative
Wisconsin Telecommunications Relay System
Madison, WI

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Event 1
Jewish Deaf Congress Conference 2005
Tampa, Florida
July 3 to 10, 2005
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Something exciting is coming to Tampa, Florida in 2005!

It will be a conference of a different kind!

It will be Jewish Deaf Congress Conference 2005 at Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay Hotel (a 4 star property) from July 3 to 10, 2005.

For the first time in JDC history we will have a HANDS-ON conference on Jewish wines, Jewish jewelry, Jewish roots, Jewish cooking and much more.

Participants will be actively involved in activities. Jewish Deaf people and their non-Jewish friends are more than welcome to join & learn "how to do it" while having fun too.

The hotel rates are only $89 a night, no matter how many people in a room. So come and share room with your friends. (psssst, Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay averages $165 a night and its an incredible deal)

Additional information and details can be found at:
www.jdc2005.com
See the website to see what's happening!

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Travel Opportunity 1
Cruise for CI Users
From Los Angeles to Hawaii
January 19 to February 3, 2005
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15 Day Cruise-Hawaiian Islands for Adult Cochlear Implant Users
*****SPECIAL FARE FOR THIS CI USER GROUP CRUISE
Leaving from Los Angeles January 19 to February 3, 2005

Join Auditory Verbal Therapist William and Carol Beitzel for an unique experience combining CI therapy with social interaction on a cruise. Learn to develop and enhance your effective comfort level skills using your cochlear implant. Come along with your spouse/SO for fun/relaxation while participating in an exciting complimentary individual/group therapy program.

Contact Bill at wave307@shaw.ca .

Cruise starts at $2099 USD (pp/dbl.occ)

Info/book-contact Evelyn Sinclair at CRUISE WORLD, INC. 101-1090 Waverley St., Winnipeg, MB,CANADA R3T 0P4
1-204-925-2120 or 1-800-463-2120
FAX 1-204-475-7171
EMAIL evelyn@cruiseworld.mb.ca

LUNCHEON AND TOUR AT ADVANCED BIONICS CORP.

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Employment Opportunity 1
Customer Service Representative
Wisconsin Telecommunications Relay System
Madison, WI
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Society's Assets, Inc is seeking a qualified individual to work as a full-time Customer Service Representative at the Wisconsin Telecommunications Relay System in Madison, Wisconsin.

General Information
The Customer Service Representative performs a variety of job functions in order to provide an optimum level of relay customer service. The primary job responsibilities of the Customer Service Representative are to serve as the principal point of contact for WTRS consumers and give educational presentations about the relay system. This position requires travel and schedule flexibility.

Requirements
- Bachelor's Degree
- Three or more years of exposure to Deaf Culture and the diverse communication needs of people who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing and/or Speech Disabled.
- Ability to communicate effectively on the phone and in person
- Experience in public speaking
- Excellent presentation skills
- Excellent customer service skills

Additional Skills Preferred
- Fluency in American Sign Language (ASL)
- Preference for studies in Communications or Social Services
- Basic data entry skills and knowledge of a variety of computer programs (Microsoft Office Suite preferred)
- Knowledge of telecommunications equipment
- Experience teaching ASL classes

Salary
Salary is commensurate with experience. Excellent benefits package!

Submit cover letter and resume to:
Wisconsin Telecommunications Relay System
Attn: Human Resources Manager
8383 Greenway Blvd, Suite 90
Middleton, WI 53562
Phone (Voice/TTY): (800) 600-7826
Fax: (608) 827-0402
Email: kathy.ottelien@hamiltonrelay.com

Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer

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- Contact Information and Disclaimers
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