Volume 39 Issue 9

HOH-LD-News
Vol. 39, Issue 9
May 30, 2009

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Table of Contents
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- Article 1: First Meeting of Technical Working Group on Captioning and Video Description - Part Two

- Article 2: Beyond cochlear implants: awakening the deafened brain

- Article 3: DeafCode Launches Captionfish.com, a Captioned Film & Movies Search Engine

- Article 4: Short Takes

Our advertisers make it possible for us to provide HOH-LD-News as a free service. Please let them know you appreciate their support, and please mention that you saw their message in HOH-LD-News.

- Advertisers in this Issue
First Premium Placement:
YOUR AD HERE
Second Premium Placement:
Father's Day Bargains - Discounts at 20%!
Third Premium Placement:
Hearing Aid Repairs from Hearing Haven
Classified Section:
One Online Store, one Closed Captioning Survey, one Hearing Aid Liner, and three Employment Opportunities

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Contact information and disclaimers are at the end of this newsletter.
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YOUR AD HERE
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If you're interested in getting your message out to people who are hard of hearing or late deafened, and to the people who serve them, you might consider a premium ad in this newsletter! Our rates are surprisingly affordable and we reach the movers and shakers in the hearing loss world. And this newsletter (unlike some of the others) is strictly "opt-in", which means that everyone who receives it WANTS to receive it!

For more information please point your browser to: http://www.hearinglossweb.com/res/pub/nsltr/hln/adv.htm
or contact larry@hearinglossweb.com
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- Article 1: First Meeting of Technical Working Group on Captioning and Video Description - Part Two
By Cheryl Heppner
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Editor: You may have heard that the FCC recently established a Technical Working Group to explore issues with captioning and video description with digital TV technology. Here with a report on the first meeting of that group is Cheryl Heppner from NVRC. You are welcome to share this report, but please be sure to credit NVRC (See credit at the end of the article.)

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Consumer Perspectives

Dana Mulvany, a long-time consumer advocate on captioning issues, gave a presentation that touched on numerous issues such as the standard for transmission of closed captioning data and how different stations handle closed captioning problems. She spoke from personal experience about the difficulty in identifying the source of a captioning problem. Some issues she's brought to the attention of broadcasters have been fixed but others have never been resolved, nor have some networks responded to her attempts to correct the problems. Dana also talked about the problems she encountered with a digital TV converter box which could convert captions from some stations but not others. As an example, the captions from the Baltimore affiliate for ABC were fine, but captions from the Washington, DC affiliate were sent in a way that was not obtainable until two weeks ago. She also talked about how new problems arise; after leaving Maryland she returned months later to discover there were new captioning problems.

Following Dana's presentation, I talked about the problems consumers have had with High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) cable that has become the choice for digital televisions and other equipment such as set-top boxes and Blu-Ray players. Karen Peltz Strauss followed with her personal experience to illustrate how difficult it can be for a consumer to find the captioning controls and set them up for use with digital television.

Larry Goldberg of the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) noted that there is no point-to-point contact for tracking down captioning problems. NCAM's attempts to help consumers have found that sometimes "user error" is responsible, but finding the root of a problem can be exhausting with the many kinds of equipment, cables, and other variables.

Standards for Captioning

Graham Jones, representing the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), believes that the standards for captioning and carrying captions are sound and that revisions have made necessary corrections. Revised engineering guidelines for implementation of closed captioning are now going through the ballot process. His view is that implementation is the key.

Andy Setos, representing FOX, said that the digital switch has been challenging. There were tremendous problems with "late captioning." It was discovered that technicians were monitoring the captioning streams but not how they synchronized with the sound. Live captioning done by contractors were better synchronized. FOX has stepped up its diligence on quality. The "shadow transition" has caused upheavals in reliability of captioning, but things are getting to a point where digital captions can be as reliable as analog ones.

Larry Goldberg noted that both 608 (analog) and 708 (digital) captions have to be in a signal now, and have been for a long time; 708 captions are derived from 608 captions.

Moving Toward Solutions

At this point Co-Chair Julius Knapp noted that the discussion had identified that there are problems with how captions are generated, transmitted and received. He asked about working on development of a database for the industry.

I talked about how consumers wanted action to be taken now to resolve the problems. Graham Jones spoke in favor of a "cue set" to help consumers troubleshoot and resolve their problems as an outcome from the working group.

Brian Markwater of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) noted that it is sometimes hard to get the level of detail to troubleshoot. Graham Jones talked about the closed captioning summit pulled together by Larry Goldberg 18 months ago to try to get action on closed captioning issues; due to lack of funding NCAM was unable to follow up. Work has been done by VITAC's CaptionsOn project and by CSD's survey, but Karen Strauss noted that the surveys need to be much more extensive.

Co-Chair Cathy Seidel asked what other data is being collected by the industry. Gerald Freda reported that CaptionMax does some follow up on consumer complaints for programs it has captioned. John Card of Echostar said that DISH customers have reported problems and that followup can be complicated because the customers may not be watching live programming. Also consumers don't always know what box they have. Bob Gabrielli of DirecTV reported that they also find it a challenge that many complaints arrive days or weeks after a problem occurred.

Karen Strauss touched on new rules for the complaint process that will make complaint reporting more effective. Under the 1998 rules still in effect, she noted, someone is supposed to be monitoring captioning for any problems, and that is not meant to be what goes out but what comes into consumer homes.

Greg DePriest (NBC) said the network has put a lot of energy into sending the captions right and asked if there was a set of best practices that could be used. Brian Markwater found the key is in execution. Cathy Seidel said the working group is open to development of best practices.

Additional Issues -- Interoperability

A whole variety of other problems with design will need to be dealt with, Graham Jones (NAB) reminded the group. The need for a closed captioning button without layers of complicated menus is going to have to be resolved by the manufacturers.

Andy Setos said that it is impossible for FOX to monitor its programs transmitted by all the cable and satellite companies. The ultimate answer is to design equipment for interoperability. Right now the only solution to problems is through remediation. He suggested a national database for information sharing.

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(c)2009 by Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (NVRC), 3951 Pender Drive, Suite 130, Fairfax, VA 22030; www.nvrc.org. 703-352-9055 V, 703-352-9056 TTY, 703-352-9058 Fax. You do not need permission to share this information, but please be sure to credit NVRC.

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- Article 2: Beyond cochlear implants: awakening the deafened brain
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Editor: The ability of deafened people to learn to "hear" with a cochlear implant is really remarkable, given how little information these devices actually provide. The folks at the University of Nottingham have been studying this phenomenon, and will be publishing their results soon. Here's their press release.

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Pioneering research, being carried out in Nottingham, into the development of cochlear implants - hearing devices that convert sound into neural signals - and the future of this technology will feature in a special focus issue of Nature Neuroscience on Tuesday 26 May 2009.

The focus issue 'How do we hear?' looks at the neurobiology of hearing and highlights the work of the MRC Institute of Hearing Research (IHR) and the National Biomedical Research Unit in Hearing (NBRUH) in partnership with The University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH).

The article 'Beyond cochlear implants: awakening the deafened brain' by Professor David Moore, Director of IHR and Scientific Director of NBRUH, and Professor Robert Shannon from the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles, discusses the ability of the brain to learn how to use cochlear implants and the importance of understanding this process to the future of implant technology.
Seven perspective and review articles will be highlighted covering recent advances in our understanding of how sounds are converted into neural signals, how these processes go wrong in hearing loss, and what attempts to rectify such hearing loss tell us about brain function.

Hearing loss affects the majority of older adults, resulting in greatly reduced quality of life. In children it can impede proper development. Cochlear implants have provided hearing to more than 120,000 deaf people, both young and old.

Recent developments include direct electrical stimulation of the brain, bilateral implants and implantation in children less than one year old. The article discusses research which is beginning to refocus on the role of the brain in providing benefits to implant users. It explains that the auditory system is able to use the highly impoverished input provided by implants to interpret speech, but this only works well in those who have developed language before their deafness or in those who receive their implant at a very young age.

Dave Moore said: "Hearing research is undergoing a revolution as our focus shifts from the ear to the brain. The incredible ability of the brain to learn is essential for gaining maximum benefit from hearing aids and cochlear implants and for optimal listening to sounds in noisy places."

In January 2004 IHR embarked on an ambitious and exciting new programme of work focussing on the auditory brain. This work includes research on the human and animal auditory cortex, auditory attention, learning and development, hearing disability and handicap, hearing with cochlear implants and hearing aids, and measures of hearing impairment.

NBRUH was founded in April 2008 and is the result of a unique partnership between The University of Nottingham, the Medical Research Council, and the NUH. Its slogan is 'Learning to treat hearing loss'. It is located in Ropewalk House, on the City's edge, also home to Nottingham's main NHS Audiology Service. NBRUH develops and steers hearing and learning research towards the development of services and products that will have direct patient benefit. With funding of £3.75m over the next four years from the Department of Health through its National Institute for Health Research major research programmes at NBRUH include improving the outcome for babies receiving bilateral cochlear implants, training older people to make best use of their impaired hearing, and developing learning-based treatments for tinnitus.

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- Article 3: DeafCode Launches Captionfish.com, a Captioned Film & Movies Search Engine
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Editor: Folks with hearing loss who like to go to movies are probably familiar with fomdi.com, which has been helping us locate captioned movies for years. Now DeafCode has launched captionfish.com, which provides a similar service.

Here's their press release.

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DeafCode, LLC. announces the launch of its first beta of Captionfish.com. It is the first website to integrate an Instant CC Film Finder(tm), which provides immediate and effortless custom results within 30 miles of a chosen location, refreshed on each visit to Captionfish.com. Results for up to 7 days in the future and 60 miles away are available at the click of a button. "The DeafCode Team was inspired to create Captionfish because of the need to find a comprehensive list of captioned movies in one place," said Chris Sano, DeafCode, LLC. Co-Founder. "We've received a tremendously positive response and feel Captionfish has the potential to become one of the most popular online destinations for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. We are adding more theaters every day and will continue to enhance the website's functionality with new features - many driven by our visitors' feedback."

Website: http://www.captionfish.com

Additional highlights of Captionfish.com's features include:

* Effortless Searching- Using its Instant CC Film Finder(tm) Captionfish offers the easiest way for visitors to find captioned movie results within 30 miles of their location.

* Comprehensive results- Captionfish's Instant CC Film Finder(tm) results can be customized for up to 7 days in the future or up to 60 miles away from a specified location.

* Open Captions and Rear Window identification- Captionfish.com provides easy to identify icons that distinguish between an "open captioned" or "rear window captioned" showing.

* Mobile edition- Captionfish provides a mobile website optimized for mobile phones so deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors can find captioned movie results while they are on the go. Mobile applications for Smart phones are under development.

* Closed Captioned Trailers- Captionfish links to a growing list of closed captioned movie trailers so the deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors can enjoy previews of current and upcoming movie releases.

* RSS Feed for custom results- Captionfish enables an RSS feed so each visitor can check for the latest captioned film results using their preferred RSS reader wherever they like.

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About DeafCode LLC.

Founded in 2009 by three deaf internet professionals with 30 years of combined experience, DeafCode LLC's mission is to utilize their skills and technological expertise to enhance the overall internet experience for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. DeafCode is based in Seattle, WA. For more information, visit www.deafcode.com

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- Article 4: Short Takes
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Editor: Here are our picks of some additional stories that you may find interesting. For more, please point your browser to: http://www.hearinglossweb.com/news/curr.htm

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Identifying Cochlear Implant Candidates in the Hearing Aid Dispensing Practice

Hearing aids help the vast majority of hearing-impaired patients seen in audiology clinics and dispensing offices/practices. But, as the degree of sensorineural hearing loss reaches the severe-to-profound range, benefits from amplification become limited. Amplifier gain cannot be increased for greater audibility without producing feedback, and no amount of tweaking of the signal processing will result in higher speech scores because some patients simply have too much hair cell loss to stimulate acoustically. An alternative is stimulation of the nerve fibers electrically via a cochlear implant. Unfortunately, many patients who fall within the current candidacy range are never referred for evaluation for a cochlear implant. Apparently, this is partly because some dispensing professionals believe that few, if any, patients in their own practices would actually be better candidates for cochlear implants than for high-power amplifiers or perhaps for high-to-low frequency transposition hearing aids.

http://tinyurl.com/p2w6d6

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Registration Required for VRS and IP Relay Users

Persons with hearing and/or speech disabilities who use VRS and/or IP Relay are reminded, if they have not yet done so, to register with the VRS or IP Relay default provider of their choice as soon as possible, and no later than June 30, 2009. To complete the registration process, a VRS and/or IP Relay user must provide his or her physical location information (Registered Location) to a default provider and, in exchange, obtain a ten-digit geographic telephone number. After June 30, 2009, all VRS and IP Relay users must be registered with a default provider in order to place a non-emergency call through any VRS or IP Relay provider. In addition, after that date, VRS and IP Relay providers will no longer complete calls to a user's former "proxy" or "alias" number that may have been previously obtained from a provider. To ensure delivery of accurate location information to responders in an emergency, VRS and IP-Relay users must provide updated location information to their default provider any time it changes. For more information about this deadline and ten-digit numbering and emergency call handling for VRS and IP Relay service, see the FCC consumer advisories at

www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/trstendigit-reminder.html
www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/trstendigit.html
www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/trstendigit-user-meaning.html

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Documentary Explores the Decision to Provide Cochlear Implant to Kids

Cochlear implant is an amazing technology that enables children and adults who have severe to profound hearing loss to hear. But, at the same time, it is controversial for many people in the deaf community, especially deaf parents with deaf children. Every parent wants the best for their children, even if it means giving them the opportunity to hear. A Chicago-area family is profiled in an upcoming documentary that shows their life as they struggle with cochlear implants. "Louder than Words" is a feature documentary that explores the real life drama of the Stark family. Parents Michael and Jill were born deaf. Their two children were also born deaf. Jeffrey, who is almost 3, and 7-month-old Melissa. "We decided to have both kids implanted. We wanted them to use the phone," said Jill.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/disability_issues&id=6815556

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- Classifieds
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One Online Store, one Closed Captioning Survey, one Hearing Aid Liner, and three Employment Opportunities (Ads appear after this brief table of contents.)

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Closed Captioning Survey - FCC wants to hear from you!

New Weber Hearing Aid Liner
Comfort, better fit, no whistling or sore spots

Employment Opportunity 1
Exciting Career Opportunities at GLAD
Various Southern California Locations

Employment Opportunity 2
Various Employment Opportunities
Georgia School for the Deaf
Cave Spring, GA

Employment Opportunity 3
Camp Director
Aspen Camp of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Old Snowmass, CO
www.aspencamp.org

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WCI. Your Single Source for Assistive Technology
10% OFF ALL WILLIAMS SOUND PRODUCTS!
http://www.weitbrecht.com
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Closed Captioning Survey - FCC wants to hear from you!
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Are you happy with closed captioning? Frustrated? What problems do you have?

CSD and partners - the National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH, the National Association of the Deaf, the Hearing Loss Association of America and a representative of the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology - have developed a closed captioning survey to further address captioning issues around the nation.

We ask that you take some time to fill out the survey. Please go to http://dtv.c-s-d.org/survey and share your thoughts.

We offer another way of completing the survey - call the CSD DTV Help Center, and have the agent fill it out for you! This innovative Help Center call can receive traditional phone calls, and also TTY, relay, videophone, and CapTel calls. This means that regardless of the level of hearing loss, the Help Center is equipped to handle any call type preference. Below is contact information:

* Voice: 1-877-DTV-4YOU (1-877-388-4968)
* TTY: 1-877-TTY-4CSD (1-877-889-4273)
* Direct Videophone via Number: 866-351-1950 or 866-401-3519
* Direct Videophone via IP Address: DTV03.CSD.TV; DTV04.CSD.TV;
* AIM: DTVCSR07 or DTVCSR008

CSD created a humorous video explaining more about the closed captioning survey. To see it, please visit http://dtv.c-s-d.org.

CSD will compile survey statistics and submit to the FCC.

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New Weber Hearing Aid Liner
comfort, better fit, no whistling or sore spots
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Benefits: comfort, better fit, no whistling or sore spots.

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Employment Opportunity 1
Exciting Career Opportunities at GLAD
Various Southern California Locations
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Exciting Career Opportunities at GLAD

GLAD is an Affirmative Action Employer with equal opportunity for men, women and people with disabilities. For more information on the following positions, please go to: www.gladinc.org. The status of all positions is: Regular, Full-time, Non-Exempt, Full Fringe Benefits unless otherwise noted. All positions are open until filled.

* Job Developer/Interpreter - Anaheim, Pacoima, Santa Ana, CA
* Community Interpreter (Two positions open) - Los Angeles, CA

If interested for any of these positions then please submit resume and application to:

Jeff Fetterman
Human Resources Specialist
Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness, Inc.
2222 Laverna Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90041
V/TDD: (323) 550-4207
Fax #: (323)550-4204
E-mail: jfetterman@gladinc.org

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Employment Opportunity 2
Various Employment Opportunities
Georgia School for the Deaf
Cave Spring, GA
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Currently accepting applications for the following positions:

Assistant Director for Residential Services - see http://www.hearinglossweb.com/res/emp/gsd2.htm
Assistant Director of Instruction (12 mth. position)
Teacher - Graduation Coach (10 mth. position)
Teacher - High School Math (10 mth. position)*
Teacher - Middle School Language Arts (10 mth. position)*
Teacher - Middle School Science (10 mth. position)*
Teacher - Reading Content Specialist - Pre K-12 (10 mth. position)*
Accountant Paraprofessional (12 mth. position)
Housekeeper (12 mth. position)
Job Coach (hourly paid)
Instructor - Residential Services (12 mth. position)
Residential Advisor (10 mth. position)*
Secretary I (12 mth. position)
Speech Language Pathologist (10 mth. position)*
Substitute Teachers (hourly paid, based on credentials)
Systems Support Tech (IT Assistant) (12 mth. position)*

* 10 month employees work 200 days (10 months) but receive payroll checks during each of the 12 months of the year.

For more information about these positions, visit the Georgia Department of Education web site at http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/pea_hr_jobsearch.aspx

Download Job Applications at:
http://www.spa.ga.gov/word/jobinfo/stateapp-emp.doc

Completed applications may be mailed, e-mailed, or faxed to:

Denise Clark, Personnel Office
Georgia School for the Deaf
232 Perry Farm Rd. SW
Cave Spring, Georgia 30124
denise.clark@doe.k12.ga.us
Fax: (706) 777-2240

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Employment Opportunity 3
Camp Director
Aspen Camp of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Old Snowmass, CO
www.aspencamp.org
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Reports To: Board of Trustees
Start Date: June 1, 2009
Application Deadline: May 22, 2009

General Responsibilities: This is a hands-on, full time position. The Director is responsible for the finances and budgeting of the organization, program development, fundraising, marketing; and meeting any Board development needs.

Additional employment opportunity information: http://www.hearinglossweb.com/res/emp/aspen.htm

Please send cover letter and resume to Elizabeth Feary at Elizabeth@aspencamp.org. No phone calls please.

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- Contact Information and Disclaimers
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We are very interested in your comments concerning the content and format of this newsletter. We want this publication to be useful to you. Please send your comments and suggestions to: hearinglossweb@hearinglossweb.com

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