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August 25, 2007
Young city boy can finally hear the roar of the crowd
Blake Russell will be going to his first wrestling show tonight, and he'll be more than just a spectator. The four-year-old Cornwall boy will the guest of honour at the show, sharing the spotlight with the stars of Canadian Grand-Prix Wrestling (CGPW) as they take to the ring at Murphy's Inn.
At some point, the youngster will make his way into the ring with his father Jason to greet the crowd.
"I know he's going to love it," said CGPW promoter Joe Dunlap.
Blake will get to hear the roar of the crowd, the ring of the bell and the thud of bodies being slammed in the ring. That's a big change from just a few short years ago.
Posted @ 3:59 AM
New Headphones Detect Hearing Loss and Monitor Listening Levels
Hamilton Electronics, a leader in electronics for the education market since 1933, is now introducing The Guardian Wired Headphone with SLM (Sound Level Monitor) technology. The Guardian has green and red LED lights so parents can visually monitor listening levels. A green light indicates a safe listening volume and a red light indicates that the sound is too high - alerting parents that the child may have a hearing problem or is at risk of causing irreversible damage to their ears.
A recent article in The New York Times focused on the rise of hearing loss in baby boomers. As part of the first "rock 'n' roll generation," boomers were the first demographic to grow up listening to loud music in concerts and on personal stereo systems.
Posted @ 3:57 AM
Doctor gives the gift of hearing to contest winner
Dr. Amy Sapodin, an East Meadow resident and co-owner of Advanced Hearing Center in Albertson, recently presented Viola Soroka of New Hyde Park, the winner of a raffle contest, with a free high-tech Widex Hearing Device valued at $ 2,400.
During Better Hearing Month in May, Soroka, 88, attended the educational seminar sponsored by Advanced Hearing Center and entered its raffle. She has suffered moderate sensory neural hearing loss in her right ear for the past 16 years.
Posted @ 3:55 AM
August 22, 2007
I'm not deaf, you're mumbling!
Have you ever been out somewhere that's a bit noisy, and found yourself having to yell at the person next to you, or resorting to hand gesture and signals to communicate?
It's Hearing Awareness Week, and Sue Ward, administrative officer with the Wimmera Hearing Society, says that hearing problems in western Victoria are 'very, very common.'
"During the last 12 months, we've screened over 4,000 people, and we've identified 1,200 who need to go to the doctor," she says.
Posted @ 8:16 AM
That ringing in your ears can be caused by many things
Question: Is tinnitus -- or ringing in the ear -- a disease?
Answer: It's the most common ear symptom there is. It affects about 36 million people.
It's a symptom because it has a cause. Now the variety of things that can cause people to have noise in their ears is extensive. The most common is because the hearing nerve in the inner ear is not normal.
That can be due to age-related hearing loss or damage to the ears as a result of noise exposure. There's a host of other problems that can contribute to this -- ear infections, metabolic problems like high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, abnormalities of blood flow, medication, or certain kinds of inner ear tumors.
Posted @ 8:12 AM
Local athlete not fazed by handicap
Dale McCord's father, Rod, knelt a few feet away from his son, playing a game of soft toss on a local elementary school's baseball diamond. Dale hammered each ball deep into the outfield, well beyond the Little League field's limits.
After Dale sent four balls for a ride, his father joked that his son would have to shag them himself. Upon returning with the balls - which now bore one additional scuff mark from where the aluminum bat made contact with the leather sphere - Dale put the bat on his shoulder and took four more wicked cuts.
Posted @ 8:11 AM
Miss Deaf Texas is on a mission to help others
When she could hear at age 5, Katherine "Katie" Deshea Murch didn't like what her mother told her, so she threw her hearing aids out the car window onto South Padre Island Drive.
Despite being born profoundly deaf and before completely losing her hearing from vertigo in 2004, Murch, now 21, flushed other hearing aids down the toilet, gave them to her dog to chew, left some at a camp in Colorado and buried others in the family's back yard, her mother said.
Posted @ 8:10 AM
Hearing Aids Online
Hearing loss affects 28 million Americans. An estimated 80% of those people with hearing loss forego using hearing aids.
Finding the right hearing aid, and related information, online can be time consuming, complicated and frustrating for someone with hearing loss. That's where AidRight.com comes in, which makes the whole procedure easy.
Posted @ 8:10 AM
Deaf seniors may get high-tech digs
A housing community for deaf and hard-of-hearing seniors is being planned for Tempe, and the $25 million project would be among the largest of its kind in the country.
The project would provide 75 apartments and 50 owner-occupied condominiums for people age 55 and older.
But Apache ASL Trails, which still must be voted on by the Tempe City Council, is intended to be more than just housing. Support services would be woven in, positioning the site to become a statewide epicenter for the deaf senior community.
Posted @ 8:10 AM
Digital TV threatens to leave deaf viewers out in cold
In response to Chuck Samuels' Speaking Out essay (Aug. 1) titled "Just get a converter box for old televisions in 2009":
The information he provides on how TV reception will work after the changeover from analog to digital on Feb. 17, 2009 is clear and concise, but he overlooked a very large and important segment of the TV viewing audience — the many people with hearing loss living in this area who rely on captioning to know what is being said.
Posted @ 8:09 AM
Deaf students take career trip to Washington
A recent summer educational trip not only allowed local Champion students to see historic and government sites in Washington, D.C., but also a chance to consider available careers at Gallaudet University, where there is a school for deaf education students.
Kay Verch, teacher of deaf education students at Champion High School, said that every few years since the late 1980s, educational trips to such places as Washington and other major cities are held to tour historic sites and college campuses.
Posted @ 8:08 AM
Closed-Captioning Suit Enters 2nd Season at FedEx Field
Last August, the National Association of the Deaf filed a lawsuit on behalf of three Washington Redskins fans to get team officials to offer closed-captioning for the deaf and hearing impaired at FedEx Field.
As another football season begins, the two sides continue to wage an off-field battle.
The fans, from Maryland, regularly attend home games and want the Redskins and FedEx Field officials to display captioning on scoreboards and video monitors for all announcements, and plays and penalties called, during the game. One of the fans, Shane Feldman of Silver Spring, said he misses parts of the game because he cannot hear information announced on the public-address system.
Posted @ 8:07 AM
Court Rules Police Department Violated the Deaf Woman's Rights
The 13th Court of Appeals ruled a deaf woman's rights were violated because no interpreter was provided.
The woman was stopped, arrested, and convicted for driving under the influence. But she did not speak English or understand American Sign Language and was never provided an interpreter.
On Thursday, the court overturned her conviction saying her rights were violated.
Posted @ 8:06 AM
Putting an end to 65 years of silence
In fall 2004, documentary filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky was caught off guard when her 65-year-old parents, both profoundly deaf since birth, announced that they had made a life-altering decision: They would both undergo cochlear implants. In three weeks.
"I was like, 'Whoa, what are you talking about? I didn't even know you were thinking about it!' " said Brodsky, who lives in Portland, Ore.
Posted @ 8:05 AM
Best Buy reaches out to deaf customers
When Kathryn Cannon first learned sign language, she couldn't have known it would help her change the way the nation's largest electronics retailer serves deaf customers.
Over the past year, changes at the Best Buy in Frederick have spread into stores across the country. These include how Best Buy collects customer data and how customers interact with workers.
As an elementary student, Cannon learned basic sign language, such as how to describe family, count and spell words. When she got a job at Best Buy in 2000, she still remembered how to introduce herself and finger spell. She was promoted to assistant manager in 2004.
Posted @ 8:04 AM
August 16, 2007
Longer mobile users at risk of hearing loss
People using mobile phones for more than four years and longer than 30 minutes a day are at risk of developing hearing loss particularly at higher speech frequencies, a study conducted by Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research has said.
Posted @ 3:05 AM
Scientists Look to Cure Hearing Loss With a Virus
Researchers at the University of Virginia are working on curing hearing loss with an experimental new form of gene therapy.
With more than 275 million people around the world that suffer from sort of nerve-related deafness, scientists are working on creating a virus that when placed in ear tissue can regrown tiny hairs inside the ear canal.
Posted @ 3:04 AM
Once-deaf girl to work at Disney World
Ashley Pooler's advice to anyone struggling with adversity is to never give up.
Born profoundly deaf, Pooler has gone from a shy and insecure child who had to work twice as hard as other kids in school, to a confident, happy and successful college student who is about to spend the fall semester working at Walt Disney World. There, she will get hands-on business experience, college credit -- and a paycheck. She departs today.
Posted @ 3:03 AM
Cochlear reports 25% jump in profit
The boss calls it a 25-year-old start up, but to tens of thousands of deaf people it is more likely an institution.
Hearing-implant company Cochlear Ltd reported on Tuesday a full year net profit of $100.13 million, a rise of 25 per cent, while core earnings were up 24 per cent to $107.56 million. Moreover, global sales of Cochlear's implants jumped by 24 per cent on last year, with 15,947 units sold.
After 25 years on the scene, and with continued financial good health, one would think Cochlear had well and truly established itself.
Posted @ 3:02 AM
Cowboys' Van Zant shows strength in silence
Go ahead, yell at Oklahoma State cornerback Martel Van Zant from the stands. And opponents, let him have a big dose of your best trash talk. It doesn't bother him.
Van Zant is deaf.
"I don't hear it, so I don't mind," says Van Zant, signing his answer back to an interpreter at Big 12 media days. "But my opponents usually play harder when they find out I'm deaf."
Posted @ 3:01 AM
Deaf Actors and Actresses Cast on All My Children
All My Children will cast deaf actors and actresses surrounding a storyline about a toddler who becomes deaf as a result of a car accident, it was announced by Brian Frons, president Daytime, Disney-ABC Television Group. As the parents cope with their son's condition, they will explore a variety of medical options, including Cochlear implants. In the episode to air on August 15, the show will introduce Walter Novak, its first deaf character for this story arc, who will be played by Bob Hiltermann, a deaf actor.
Posted @ 3:00 AM
Xerox Classic golfers teach deaf students
The driving range at Irondequoit County Club this morning was filled with professional golfers in town for the Xerox Classic golf tournament, which begins Thursday. The golf balls they smacked were barely visible when then they landed hundreds of yards away.
While the pros practiced, a group of more than 20 summer students from Rochester School for the Deaf gathered to get golf tips from the pros. Some managed to swing a club for the first time, causing the practice snag balls to bounce a few feet from their tee.
Posted @ 3:00 AM
Health care plea for deaf people
The Royal National Institute for the Deaf said there were no specialist services for deaf people in Scotland. Currently, those with acute problems have to travel to Manchester for treatment.
The charity said deaf people are four times more likely to develop mental health problems than those with normal hearing.
The last time the Scottish government reviewed services for the deaf was in 2005.
Posted @ 2:53 AM
Loan officer focuses on deaf and hard of hearing people
Loan officer Eric Eliason's phone makes cold calling so successful his bosses are looking to get more; the only problem is finding people who can operate them.
Eliason, 27, of Farmington, doesn't use just any phone to talk to his clients; he uses a video phone and serves the deaf and hard of hearing community by using sign language. So while many loan officers making cold calls will be awash in hang-ups, polite kiss-offs and worse, the people Eliason calls are so surprised to get help from someone they can talk to, they're much more likely to stay on the line.
Posted @ 2:52 AM
The deaf face challenges when interacting with law enforcement
Jerry Siders expected some miscommunication with the police officer who pulled him over for expired tags, but he didn't expect to be held at gunpoint.
"I decided to get out of the car, and the policeman put the gun right up to my face," Siders said. "I pointed to my ears and he knew I was not a dangerous person."
Siders is deaf and spoke through an operator for Sorenson Video Relay services.
Posted @ 2:50 AM
Judge Spotlights Shortage of Interpreters for the Deaf
The prevailing custom in the New York courts is for sign language interpreters to work in tandem: one translates the rapid-fire arguments of courtroom life, while the other gets to rest weary hands.
There is, however, a shortage in the courts of sign language interpreters, so this buddy system does not always work, according to court officials. Yesterday, a judge in Queens took note of the shortage, writing a memorandum that explained why he had awarded an interpreter who was forced to work alone twice his daily rate of pay.
Posted @ 2:49 AM
Deaf Man Sentenced For Molesting Man He Mentored
A deaf man from San Diego who molested a disabled man he was mentoring was sentenced on Thursday in a court in Murrieta.
According to prosecutors, Timothy Wayne Harris will have to register as a sex offender for his role in attacking the 24-year-old man, who is deaf and mentally disabled. The crimes were reported by the victim from Perris, California, when Harris stopped mentoring him.
Posted @ 2:48 AM
Making Deaf Ears Hear with Light
About 100,000 profoundly deaf people now hear with cochlear implants, which work by stimulating the auditory nerve with a string of electrodes implanted in the inner ear. While the devices enable many users to converse easily and use telephones, they still fall short of restoring normal hearing. Now scientists at Northwestern University are exploring whether laser-based implants could one day outperform today's electrical version.
Posted @ 2:47 AM
Campbell's Creek native out to show how much deaf people are able to do
Allen Winfree is making history at West Virginia University as the first deaf student to graduate from the MBA program, but earning his degree is not what he is most proud of.
The greatest obstacle the Campbell's Creek native has overcome repeatedly throughout his life is convincing people that he is a normal person who can accomplish just as much as any other person.
"It seems like people are afraid to communicate with deaf people," he said through an interpreter in a telephone interview. "They feel like deaf people are not capable of doing what hearing people can do."
Posted @ 2:46 AM
Emergency SMS service for the mute and deaf
The Mumbai Police launched an emergency SMS number for the mute and the deaf. The number – 9320200100 — will not be toll free like 100.
Speaking with DNA, Joint Commissioner Police (Administration), Hemant Karkare said, “We had a high-level meeting internally about how to reach all the sections of the society.
Posted @ 2:45 AM
Deaf school faculty drops from 20 to 15
The South Dakota School for the Deaf laid off four teachers this year amid falling enrollment on the Sioux Falls campus, an official said.
Included in the layoffs are the teacher whose duties included teaching American Sign Language and an algebra teacher whose exit means students must pick up a math credit from another school in order to satisfy state graduation requirements.
Posted @ 2:45 AM