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September 12, 2008
Why 80% of Americans with Hearing Loss Do Not Purchase Hearing Aids
According to the Mayo Clinic, an estimated one-quarter of Americans between the ages of 65 and 75 and almost three-quarters of those over 75 have some degree of hearing loss.
Surprisingly, according to Randy Wohlers, founder of MyHearPod.com, only about 20% ever purchase a device to help restore their hearing abilities. This is not because of denial or lack of money as you might assume, but rather due to misinformation from their doctors and a general lack of understanding from the medical community.
Posted @ 10:06 AM
ESU Color Guard Learns Sign Language
East Stroudsburg University's color guard squad has added a new facet to its performance during football games — they render the words to the alma mater in American Sign Language.
"I'm glad we started doing it," said Ashlie Grimes, the squad's captain. "It's more visual. It's more audience participation than in the past."
But while it has performed the song twice thus far this year, the squad hit a bump.
"We took the words too literally and, when actually translated, it made no sense," Grimes said. "People looking at the sign language wouldn't understand what we were saying."
About 5,000 people in Monroe County are deaf or hard of hearing, and about 150 of them use American Sign Language as their primary means of communication, according to Jeffrey Weber, an assistant professor of public administration who has conducted a survey on their needs.
Posted @ 10:05 AM
Sign Language Bridges Gap for Deaf Student
Students giggling on a school bus is an everyday occurrence but one special student has a deeper understanding thanks to the efforts of several local youth.
Holly Brumbalow, a senior who attends Salina special needs cooperative, is deaf. Kialyn Anderson, 12, a seventh-grader at Abilene Middle School who also rides the bus, and Parker O’Neal, 9, a fourth-grader, both used sign language to ask Brumbalow how she was doing. The deaf student smiled and through sign language told Anderson and O’Neal that she “was doing fine.”
Anderson had an interest in sign language. Her mother’s best friend had a child who doctors ruled was deaf at the age of seven months. The closeness of those families led her mother to buy a book on sign language and Kialyn and her mother learned some of the basics.
Posted @ 10:03 AM
Tinnitus in a computer model
Scientists from Berlin study how hearing loss can lead to tinnitus. Tinnitus, i.e. the perception of phantom sounds in the absence of an acoustic stimulus, can be caused by hearing loss. Under which circumstances does this occur? Which mechanisms are involved? Roland Schaette and Richard Kempter from the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience and the Humboldt University in Berlin found answers to these questions using computer simulations.
Tinnitus arises in the auditory pathway of the central nervous system. In animal studies, tinnitus-like activity of neurons - so-called hyperactivity - has been found in the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN), the first processing stage for acoustic information in the brain.
Posted @ 10:02 AM
Ubisoft to include subtitles for hearing-impaired
In order to make games more accessible to those with hearing impairment, Ubisoft Wednesday announced plans to include subtitles in all internally-developed titles.
The first games to support subtitles will be Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia, and Shaun White Snowboarding.
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"This commitment entails modifications to some of our game engines, as well as the inclusion of subtitles in the conception phase of game development," said Ubisoft, the world's sixth largest publisher.
Posted @ 9:59 AM
Kathy Cox outsmarts 5th-graders, wins a million
The fifth-graders never had a chance. Georgia State school superintendent Kathy Cox became the first $1 million winner Friday night on the FOX TV series “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader” by answering correctly the question: Who was the longest reigning British monarch?
It was a giddy performance on screen, recorded Aug. 6 in Los Angeles. Cox watched the show with about 100 supporters and friends at Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill in Peachtree City, all whooping at her big game show gamble that paid off.
She said her entire winnings will be donated to three schools: Georgia Academy for the Blind in Macon; Atlanta Area School for the Deaf in Clarkston and Georgia School for the Deaf in Cave Spring.
Posted @ 9:57 AM
Alan Hurwitz is Deaf Life's Deaf Person of the Month
The joys and challenges of heading NTID
When I came to work at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in 1970, I was an education specialist in RIT's College of Engineering and College of Applied Science and Technology. NTID was still very much in the experimental phase. It wasn't known how well deaf and hard-of-hearing students would fit in on a campus filled with thousands of hearing students.
Coming from a college background that offered little or no support services, I immediately knew NTID was a unique resource. But it is more than that. I consider NTID to be a national treasure.
Posted @ 9:56 AM
Women going to international conference for deaf workers
Two local women will be crossing the globe to represent the 4-States at an international conference for Christian, deaf workers.
Mary Alice Gardner, an instructor of deaf communications at Ozark Christian College, says she'll be working a lot at the event the first week in October.
She says sign language is not universal , so she will assist participants with communicating.
Carole Roper, a retired postal worker, is deaf herself and will also be a delegate.
Posted @ 9:51 AM
Deaf Community Responds To Reading Level Comment
WAPT News was flooded with feedback after airing a story on sign language interpreter Greg Goldman.
Goldman was highly visible during Gov. Haley Barbour’s news conferences on Hurricane Gustav.
However, some members of the deaf community said they were upset about a statistic he quoted about their average reading level.
Goldman told WAPT that his job is extremely important because many deaf people have a fourth-or fifth-grade reading level.
Posted @ 9:50 AM
Early intervention helps infants born deaf
Infants with permanent hearing loss benefit in terms of language development from being enrolled very early -- before 3 months of age -- in intervention programs, according to a new study.
Normally, children with moderate to profound hearing loss exhibit delayed language skills at 12 to 16 months of age, compared with children with mild to minimal hearing loss, the researchers explain in the medical journal Pediatrics.
Previous research indicates that children who are deaf or have hearing loss who are not diagnosed early and do not receive early intervention for language development do not catch up to their hearing counterparts in language skills, or in "social skills, literacy, and academic skills, resulting in lower potential employment levels as adults," Dr. Betty Vohr, of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, and colleagues point out.
Posted @ 9:49 AM
Teenager almost deaf after waiting too long for ear drum surgery
In the latest bungle involving an Australian hospital, a teenage boy in Tasmania has reportedly waited so long for surgery to repair his perforated ear drum that he is almost deaf.
Though 15 year-old Jeremy Brewer had been listed as a category one case by the hospital, three and a half years down the line he is apparently still waiting for surgery.
The Royal Hobart Hospital has admitted that an administrative mistake has been made but meanwhile the teenage boy's hearing and speech have significantly deteriorated and according to his mother he is failing at school.
Posted @ 9:48 AM
Deaf boxer dogs animal shelter’s budget
The recent rescue of a deaf white, 6-month-old boxer puppy has the Riverbend Humane Society in need of financial help.
Maggie, or so she is called, was rescued around three weeks ago after she was spotted running free in a field miles from the shelter by area mail carriers, said Melissa Fox, a volunteer and board member with the society.
She was starving and skinny and apparently had gotten hold of something that was poisoning her, Fox said. On top of that, rescuers discovered that she was born deaf, a genetic abnormality of her breed.
"I would say she's probably one of the worst ones we've found health wise. Once she got to the shelter she refused to eat," Fox said. "She was very, very thin. She was kind of almost lifeless. Her tongue ended up swelling up - that was when we knew there was something wrong. She was in pretty poor shape."
Rescuers proceeded to take her to a local veterinarian to be nursed back to health in an intensive care unit. Three days later, the organization was stuck with an $800 bill.
Posted @ 9:47 AM
How Technology Changes Deaf History
For generations, Deaf artists and poets relied on personal connections to tell their stories. But advancement in technology through blogs or video "vlogs" has changed the way their message can now be spread.
A first-of-its-kind conference, made possible by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities, will discuss how changing technology is affecting storytelling in American Sign Language in the Deaf community.
More than 400 people are expected to attend the symposium, "Redefining the Literary Expressions of Deafhood: The Impact of the Digital Age," Oct. 3 and 4 at RIT/NTID.
The conference will trace the emergence of Deaf/ASL literature and explore its roots in the works of contemporary Deaf poets, storytellers, bloggers and vloggers. Scholars, creative artists and the public will discuss the way modern technology is affecting narratives previously passed on in person with American Sign Language. It will also offer a rare opportunity to see live works of Deaf performers.
Posted @ 9:47 AM
Three appointed to commission for deaf
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has appointed two new members and reappointed one to the Kansas Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
“All Kansans deserve equal access to quality services,” Sebelius said. “This commission works to improve the state services available to those who are deaf or hard of hearing. I’m thankful for their work.”
Jack Cooper, Gardner, attended both the Kansas School for the Deaf and the Nebraska School for the Deaf prior to attending Gallaudet University in Washington D.C. He has served as the president emeritus for the Kansas Association for the Deaf and is currently a representative on the National Association of the Deaf Region II Board. He has been appointed to a three-year term.
Posted @ 9:46 AM
After 70 years: German deaf association apologizes
Almost 70 years have passed since the onset of World War II, yet only last week saw a reconcilement effort in Cologne, Germany, bringing together representatives of the Israeli and German associations for the deaf.
“We would like to officially express our deep sorrow for the suffering caused to so many deaf Jews,” the German representatives wrote in a letter.
“There was always a connection between the associations,” Doron Levy, a sign-language teacher and chairman of the Association of the Deaf in Israel, wrote to Ynet.
Posted @ 9:45 AM
Deaf Child Helped Out In School By...Tennis Balls!
When the roar of the U.S. Open subsides later this week, some of the 50,000 leftover tennis balls will be used to reduce the racket in a Westchester classroom. It's all an effort to help a young boy hear his teacher.
To 4-year-old Luc Bordier, a tennis ball is more than a toy to share with his dog. It's also a tool to create the best possible learning environment when Luc enters kindergarten.
"Luc is deaf, he was born deaf, it's a genetic thing, transmitted from his mother and I," says Robert Bordier, Luc's father.
Posted @ 9:44 AM
River Valley Church Tends To Deaf Evacuees
A River Valley church is making a difficult situation much easier for some Hurricane Gustav evacuees with special needs.
The Hands in Christ Deaf Ministry at the First Baptist Church Of Lavaca is hosting five deaf evacuees.
Church officials said they offered their services as soon as they heard evacuees would be returning to Fort Chaffee.
Posted @ 9:44 AM
6-year-old serves notice at White House
At the ripe age of 6, Declan Hurley of Clarence knows exactly what he wants out of life: to be the first deaf president of the United States.
Standing in front of the Treasury Building after touring his hoped-for future home Thursday, Declan said he wants to be president because he’s smart and wants to help people.
“And I want to make money,” he added, proving that he may some day be one of those truth-telling candidates.
Declan toured the White House with his parents, completing a dream that began when he wrote to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N. Y., to ask for tickets.
Posted @ 9:42 AM