« March 2010 | Main | July 2010 »
April 13, 2010
Do claims for tinnitus supplements ring true?
For millions of people, the quietest room is never quiet enough. Even when surrounded by silence, they can hear a ringing or buzzing in their ears that drives them to distraction. The sound is called tinnitus, and sufferers — often people with hearing trouble thanks to advanced age or loud sounds — are willing to go to great lengths to stop the noise.
Some plead with their doctors to cut their hearing nerves completely, but even this drastic measure won't help. The few patients who have had the procedure could still hear their tinnitus — and nothing else.
Tinnitus can sometimes be treated with electronic masking devices that help obscure the sound. And some patients find relief from cognitive behavioral therapy, a type of counseling that can encourage people to think about things other than their tinnitus.
Posted @ 9:36 AM
Deaf girl, 3, now a chatterbox thanks to cochlear implant
A girl who was born deaf is now speaking and has advanced language skills for her age after a life-changing operation. Ava Pearson was nine months old when she became one of the youngest people in Britain to have cochlear implants.
Now aged three, she has language skills months ahead of other children her age and is doing well at nursery school. Her mother, Lauren, 31, from London, said: 'It was amazing to see her reacting to noise. I was so excited and felt such a sense of relief. Her hearing is improving every day and she has become such a chatterbox.'
Posted @ 9:34 AM
New hope in the fight to wipe out deafness
A new treatment is giving partially deaf people the chance to hear the world around them better than they dreamed possible.
The technique, known as a soft-surgery cochlear implantation, involves inserting an electrode into the inner ear of patients who have some residual hearing.
The treatment was previously offered only to people with total or near-total hearing loss, also called profound deafness. But now, a doctor at Al Mafraq Hospital in the capital is confident that the surgery is safe enough to be performed on patients with some hearing without risk of further loss.
Posted @ 9:32 AM
Hearing loss may cause isolation
Joyce Bell of Attica recognized the tell-tale signs of hearing loss creeping up on her about a year ago. "I noticed I was having to say 'huh' and have people repeat themselves," the 67-year-old said.
She also had to turn up the television really loud. But the main downside to hearing loss has been how it affects her social circle. Bell usually travels to restaurants and to play Bingo with her friends, who drive large vehicles.
"I can't hear at all in the back seat," she said. "So I just quit going with them. I think I'm more of a stay at home person than what I was because it's just very difficult to hear."
Posted @ 9:31 AM
Deaf students hope trustees listen to reason
Grade 9 student Cassandra Bell has thrived and excelled in school for nine years, despite being diagnosed in kindergarten with hearing loss that's deteriorated to deafness. But River East Transcona School Division's budget has chopped the division's lone teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing.
That teacher "has been there since the day we found out Cassandra was deaf, nine years," said Cassandra's mother, Loretta Bell.
Bell said the teacher is being transferred back into the classroom and her position is being dropped. The teacher worked with 50 students, seeing Cassandra at Robert Andrews School once every six days, Bell said.
Posted @ 9:28 AM
RIT examines deaf entrepreneurship
In the world of work, deaf and hard-of-hearing people are notably absent, at least in large numbers.
Estimates vary on joblessness in the community, though a 2008 Cornell University study indicated 44 percent of working-age Americans with a hearing disability were unemployed.
Pointing to entrepreneurship as a way to boost the financial fortunes of the deaf community, a Rochester Institute of Technology researcher has started an investigation into the state of business creation in the deaf world.
"This stemmed from a desire to ... find out how has entrepreneurship embedded itself in the deaf community and what can we do to promote it," said Richard DeMartino, director of RIT's Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and principal investigator in the study.
Posted @ 9:26 AM
Employers Should Reach Out More to Deaf Community
A recent article in our business section caught my eye: "RIT examines deaf entrepreneurship." The article talked about the estimated 44 percent unemployment among people with a hearing disability and how RIT is studying entrepreneurship in the deaf community with an eye toward promoting it.
So I thought I'd share my experience from two years ago when I supervised a deaf intern here. I was overseeing our custom content department (magazines, special sections, niche web sites) and a deaf RIT student applied for an internship as a copy editor. I was apprehensive at first, as I'd never worked closely with a deaf person before, but he had good experience on student publications so I wanted to give him a shot. It turned out to be such a wonderful experience - for him, me and my staff.
Posted @ 9:26 AM
State’s only school for blind and deaf students in jeopardy
Katherine McCarrick is 14 but has the cognitive development of a 3-year-old.
The Peoria teen is blind and deaf, making her needs so profound that her parents enrolled her two years ago at the Philip J. Rock Center and School in Glen Ellyn — the state's sole public facility serving children like her.
But now, the west suburban facility may be forced to close in coming weeks because of the state's financial crisis.
Peggy Whitlow, chief administrator of the Rock Center, said the state owes the facility about $1.7 million, or about half its annual funding, meaning she will not be able to pay her staff beyond April 15.
Posted @ 9:25 AM
Gene that causes deafness discovered
The discovery could lead to new tests to identify if deafness in their family is genetic and therefore if any future children would be at risk.
An estimated one child in 750 is born profoundly deaf or with a severe hearing loss. In at least half of these children, the cause of deafness is genetic.
The research was funded by the Royal National Institute for the Deaf and conducted in The Netherlands.
It discovered that changes in the PTPRQ gene can lead to deafness after studying the genetics of families where several members had inherited childhood hearing loss.
Posted @ 9:24 AM
Curtain Going Up
For 40 years, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf has literally set the stage for thousands of students to participate in theater arts.
Dance productions, original plays, poetry, musicals and Shakespeare are all performed in front of appreciative and entertained audiences. The words on stage are spoken in sign language at the same time another actor - often in the background - voices what is being signed, so hearing audience members as well as those knowing sign language can follow along.
"NTID is one of a handful of places in the entire world that produce this form of theater," says Jim Orr, the theater's community relations and production manager and an integral member of NTID's Theater Department since 1984. "I think we're one of the best kept secrets around, but we do want everyone to know about us."
Posted @ 9:23 AM
Former Deaf School teacher wins discrimination lawsuit
A former School for the Deaf teacher has won a Federal lawsuit against the State of Mississippi. Melissa Ross filed a racial discrimination lawsuit after she was fired in 2007. Melissa Ross took on the state, claiming she was the victim of racial discrimination at the School for the Deaf in north Jackson.
"It was just a clear racial divide," said Ross.
Her federal lawsuit cited evidence of troubling racial discrimination within the facility and a hostile environment according to her Jackson attorney, Michael Brown.
Posted @ 9:22 AM
Deaf, blind runners prove they're just like anyone else
The Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind is once again organizing a competitive high school track team to compete against other local schools.
The team consists of both deaf and blind runners, and spectators might be surprised at how discreet the differences between VSDB athletes and non-disabled students really are.
Without noticing the school's abbreviation on the front of their T-shirts, most fans would be unable to even realize the students had any kind of vision or hearing impairment at all.
Posted @ 9:21 AM
Signing the gospel
Warren Adolf grew up deaf and was baptized in a church where everybody else could hear. Then when it came time for confirmation, he was helped by a minister who was pastor of a church that catered to the deaf.
"He didn't know before that there was such a thing as a deaf church," said the Rev. Richard Moody.
Moody is pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church for the deaf, which once was led by the minister who helped Adolf.
Adolf was so impressed that he eventually joined Holy Cross. Today the 66-year-old Maryland Heights resident is president of the congregation at 1135 Macklind Ave. And he loves it.
Posted @ 9:20 AM
Inaugural Deaf Tennis Open Tournament Announced
USA Deaf Sports Federation in conjunction with DeafNation will host the first-ever USA Deaf Tennis Open, to be held on July 15-19, 2010, at Las Vegas Hilton Tennis Center and Lorenzi Park Tennis Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Open will be held prior to the DeafNation World Expo on July 19-23, 2010.
Sanctioned by the International Committee of the Sport for the Deaf, and recognized by the United States Tennis Association (USTA)-Nevada District, the USA Deaf Tennis Open will have four following events that will be counted toward tennis ranking points.: Open Men's Singles, Open Women's Singles, Open Men's Doubles, Open Women's Doubles.
Posted @ 9:19 AM
Priest steps down following abuse allegation
A St. Francis Xavier Church priest who was reinstated to his parish duties after a judge dismissed abuse allegations against him four years ago has voluntarily stepped down after a man charged that he was sexually abused by the priest at a Milton church nearly 40 years ago.
The Rev. Charles J. Murphy serves as director of the deaf apostolate for the parish. He relinquished his ministry obligations last week.
Posted @ 9:18 AM
Gallaudet baseball team ends 13-year conference losing streak
According to celebratory text messages received by family and friends from members of the Gallaudet University baseball team, the Bison had defeated Stevenson University, 5-3, on Thursday in the first game of a doubleheader. But such news was hard to believe on April 1, and harder still because Gallaudet hadn't won a Capital Athletic Conference baseball game since 1997.
But it was no joke. The Bison had really won.
"I've seen a lot of ups and downs," said assistant coach Kris Gould, who has been involved with Gallaudet athletics for 21 years. "Mostly downs."
Posted @ 9:17 AM
April 2, 2010
Joey McIntyre Opens Up About Son’s Hearing Loss
When Dad’s a pop star, every minute of the day comes with a soundtrack.
“There’s always music in the house,” says New Kids on the Block’s Joey McIntyre, who lives in L.A. with his wife, Barrett, and their sons Griffin Thomas, 2, and Rhys Edward, 3 months.
But from the day he came home, the youngest McIntyre has heard little of it.
Rhys failed a routine hearing test at the hospital after he was born Dec. 13th, the couple tell PEOPLE, and extensive follow-up tests at UCLA showed that he had severe hearing loss.
Says Barrett, “What’s wild is we will never really know how [anything] sounds for him.”
When the McIntyres got the diagnosis two days before Christmas, “We went through a full range of emotions,” says Barrett, 31. “As a mother you want to protect your kids. I thought, ‘How could I let this happen?’ I felt responsible.”
Posted @ 5:20 AM
Cochlear implant improves her hearing ability
Today at the age of six, she is going to a mainstream CBSE school and has been promoted to Class 2. Her parents beaming proudly say that she is at par with any normal child.
Vijayashree's parents first noticed that there was something wrong with their daughter, when she was six months old. "It was Deepavali and there were firecrackers bursting around our house. In spite of the loud sounds, Vijayashree was fast asleep. That's when we realised there was something wrong," said her father Vivekanandan.
He said that at that time they were in Chennai and he took her to an ENT specialist there. However, he got a transfer to Bangalore around that time. Vivekanandan then approached Manipal Hospital, where after a series of examinations, she underwent cochlear implant in her right ear. She was one-and-half-years-old then.
Posted @ 5:19 AM
10 Signs You Need A Hearing Evaluation
Hearing loss is on the rise in the United States and unfortunately goes undiagnosed.
Although there are many different causes of hearing loss, the most common cause of is presbycusis - hearing loss due to the aging process which most often occurs in the higher frequencies. Typically hearing loss due to age is also influenced by genetics, exposure to loud sounds through your lifetime and general overall health.
Hearing loss due to age occurs at different rates and affects each person differently throughout their life; however, one thing is common for all – it occurs gradually. In fact it occurs so gradual many persons don’t even notice they have hearing loss.
Posted @ 5:15 AM
Deaf Caretaker Charged With Battery To Infant
A deaf West Side woman was charged with aggravated battery to a child Thursday for allegedly shaking and squeezing an infant she was caring for earlier this month.
Angela Harris, 47, of 5200 block of West Quincy, was charged early Thursday after police questioned her through a sign-language interpreter, police said.
On March 13, a 7-month-old boy was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston for breathing problems and a swollen head. He was later transferred to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, a police report said.
Posted @ 5:15 AM
Deaf man trying to cross street hit by car
A deaf man trying to cross North Broadway was struck by a vehicle today, March 30 near the Warren County Fairgrounds.
Dianna Brown said her fiancee, Kenneth Martz, 31 was trying to cross the street around 3:20 p.m. when he was struck by a woman driving a Buick Park Avenue.
Brown said Martz often attempts to cross the five-lane roadway to visit a store.
Martz was transported by medical helicopter to Miami Valley Hospital from the accident, which closed North Broadway to southbound traffic. As of 6:40 p.m. Martz was still being treated in the emergency room of the hospital, according to a nursing supervisor.
Posted @ 4:55 AM
Marlee Matlin launches reality series on YouTube
Marlee Matlin had an idea for a reality show that she hoped would bring some insight into the lives and struggles of deaf people and how they cope. But while reality TV has brought us wife swappers, party girls, aging rock stars and dieting divas, apparently no one was ready for something that real.
So instead, the hearing-impaired actress who won an Academy Award as lead actress for her role in "Children of a Lesser God," took her show "My Deaf Family" to Google's YouTube. You can watch it here.
"Deaf and hard of hearing people make up one of the largest minority groups," she said in an interview through her interpreter, Jack Jason, "and yet there has never been a show, a reality documentary series that features what life is like for them." Matlin financed the show, which tells the story of a family in Fremont, Calif. All the family members are deaf, except for the oldest son, Jared, and the youngest, Elijah. It is narrated by Jared.
Posted @ 4:54 AM
State sued for failing to provide mental health services for the deaf
While the state is focusing on repairing its damaged mental health system, the deaf who need those services have been totally shut out of getting any help, according to a federal lawsuit.
The suit was brought by 25-year-old Gwinnett County woman and a 22-year-old Harris County man, but they ask the court to allow 350 other deaf people with mental be included in the complaint as a “class.” The federal lawsuit says the state has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution because there is no system for matching those with mental disabilities with providers who are fluent in American Sign Language.
“How would you ever be able to be able to diagnose someone if you couldn’t communicate with them?” attorney Lee Parks said to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s a good example of a hole in the public health matrix that is heart rending."
Posted @ 4:54 AM
Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton changes name
For more than a century, the name Clarke School for the Deaf was instantly recognizable to nearly everyone in the deaf community throughout the country. Now they will have to get used to another name.
The landmark school atop Roundhill Road, along with its four satellite campuses, will henceforth be collectively known as the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech. The change was approved by the Board of Trustees late last year and is now being implemented, according to Clarke President William J. Corwin. He said the wording better reflects the school’s mission.
“We had done a lot of research with constituent groups and one of the strongest messages was the idea of our school helping children learn to listen and talk,” Corwin said.
Posted @ 4:53 AM
$1.4M Headed to Deaf Action Center
Louisiana will receive $1.4M on Tuesday. It's a portion of $160M in federal stimulus funding being distributed to several states.
The Pelican State's share is headed to the Deaf Action Center of Louisiana. The Shreveport center will use the money to purchase more than 80 Video Remote Interpreters (VRI). VRIs allows interpreting to take place from another location.
David Hylan is the center's director. He says VRIs will be beneficial in places like banks and medical facilities.
Posted @ 4:52 AM
Deaf players get a kick from football
Gesticulating wildly and never losing sight of each other or the ball, the footballers dashed across the field attempting to land the last goal and equalise the score.
The final score was 5-4 and as the two teams shook hands and cheered each other there was little to distinguish the victors from the losing team - except that all the opposition players were deaf.
The so-called Deaf Kavallieri team was closely edged out by a selection from third division Swieqi United and officials.
The deaf team was established around two years ago, but last Thursday's game was only the third match they had played this year and the first time they had played against an established football club, as they struggle to find opponents willing to give them a game.
Posted @ 4:51 AM
Deaf history museum gets grant to study future
A central Kentucky museum of deaf history is being reviewed with the aim of putting together a long-term plan to display the trove of items in its collection.
The Danville Advocate-Messenger reports that Jacobs Hall Museum on the campus of the Kentucky School for the Deaf has received a grant from a national preservation organization to conduct the work.
The grant, from the Conservation Assessment Program administered by national nonprofit group Heritage Preservation, will provide funding for two museum experts to complete a study of Jacobs Hall and offer their suggestions about how to proceed.
Posted @ 4:50 AM
School for the Deaf in Rome celebrates 135 years of deaf education
Rome has seen a lot of things come and go between 1875 and 2010 - but one thing that has stood strong all those years is the New York State School for the Deaf.
This week the school celebrates its 135th anniversary and on Thursday, the campus celebrated with a play demonstrating the evolution of deaf education.
School Superintendent Carriann Ray said that while the school has been a mainstay in Rome, it hasn't been without it's own share of changes.
"I think it's looking at a total education for deaf students, as their needs are very different," Ray said. "Each student may be hard of hearing...deaf. Some students may have hearing aids, some have cochlear implants. So, deaf education has had to change to meet the many needs that students have."
Posted @ 4:50 AM
Verona deaf school ex-pupils tell Italian TV of sex abuse by priests
The sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church came to the Pope’s doorstep last night as a group of victims appeared on Italian television to claim that two dozen priests had for decades abused children at a school for the deaf in Verona.
Three former pupils of the Antonio Provolo school who spoke on RAI, the state broadcaster, confirmed allegations made in a signed statement last year by 67 ex-pupils who described a regime of sexual abuse, paedophilia and corporal punishment from the 1950s to the 1980s. They said that 24 priests and lay brothers from the Company of Mary order were involved.
Posted @ 4:48 AM
Local students expand horizons at Academic Bowl in Oklahoma
Teamwork and education are a couple of the benefits two local students received while taking part in Academic Bowl 2010 in Oklahoma.
Dan-O Laurion and Kelly Lanning are seniors at the Washington State School for the Deaf in Vancouver. Kelly lives in Longview, recently moving from Tacoma. Dan-O is a lifelong Kelso resident.
The Academic Bowl is sponsored each year by Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. The school was founded in 1864 by an act of Congress, with its charter signed by Abraham Lincoln.
Posted @ 4:47 AM
Miss Deaf Utah eager to show disabilities need not be disabling
Like many pageant contestants, Andrea Vigil has spent countless hours developing her talent, trying to find the perfect song to accompany her hip-hop routine.
But unlike other beauty queens, Vigil cannot hear the music she will dance to.
Vigil is Miss Deaf Utah, serving as a role model and spokeswoman for the deaf community in Utah. Now Vigil is preparing for the Miss Deaf America pageant this summer.
The 22-year-old from Taylorsville had to overcome more than hearing loss to accomplish her goal. Born prematurely and weighing just over two pounds, Vigil had to endure years of braces on her arms and legs to correct defects. A tumor behind her left eye as a toddler left her blind on that side.
Posted @ 4:46 AM
More help for deaf children
The Welsh Assembly Government today launched new quality standards today to improve services for deaf and hearing impaired children.
In Wales, about 40 children every year are diagnosed with significant permanent deafness which will cause problems in developing speech unless they receive help. Most of these are found to be deaf early in their lives following hearing screening after shortly after birth. Some are diagnosed later as deafness can occur at anytime throughout childhood and into adulthood.
Posted @ 4:45 AM
Jail for fraduster who targeted the Deaf
A woman whose dishonesty struck hard at the Christchurch deaf community has been jailed for 18 months.
Judge Brian Callaghan sentenced Christine Doreen Ticehurst to a prison term because he did not believe home detention was enough to make her accountable for the harm she had done to her victims and the deaf community.
He said Ticehurst, 49, had had an enormous impact on the deaf community whose members relied on each other for assistance and support. Her victims trusted her as she was part of the close knit community.
Posted @ 4:45 AM
SD governor vetoes bill on deaf education
Gov. Mike Rounds has vetoed a bill that would have required the South Dakota Education Department to set up programs to promote the education of children who are deaf or have impaired hearing.
Rounds says the some of the bill's requirements are already included in federal law. He says other provisions would be difficult for school districts to accomplish.
Posted @ 4:44 AM
Experts to assess Jacobs Hall at KSD in Danville
Many people are unaware that a treasure trove of deaf history resides in Jacobs Hall on the campus of Kentucky School for the Deaf, but a grant from a national preservation organization could change that.
Jacobs Hall Museum, on South Second Street, was chosen for the Conservation Assessment Program administered by Heritage Preservation, a national non-profit that works to preserve cultural heritage.
The grant will provide funding for two museum experts to complete a study of Jacobs Hall and offer their suggestions about how to proceed.
Posted @ 4:43 AM