a more silent world

I'm trying to file a captioning complaint at the official FCC website and every single link is broken.  To say I am pissed off is an understatement.  Screw you FCC! http://www.fcc.gov/accessibility-complaints-form-2000c Thanks for nothing.

I've been messing around quite a bit with a Javascript framework graphing toolset called HighCharts. I tweaked it to graph my past and current audiograms and you can see the output here: Here is a link to the HTML: http://theunixguys.com/audiogram.html Feel free to look at the source and use it as a template to graph your own.  It is just static HTML and you just need to customize the values.

Last week I dropped into full silence on one side.  But let's take a look back first... I've been losing my hearing now for 35 years.  It has been a slow and steady loss; the kind that goes unnoticed over weeks and even many months.  But over the years it has been like becoming a senior citizen many times over.  A cycle in which I must realize (or more accurately, admit to myself) that I have lost an appreciable amount of hearing and I either need to have my hearing aids adjusted or replaced.  A cycle that requires me to "learn" how to hear again because, after getting the aids adjusted or replaced, my world sounds drastically different than it did the day before. My first cycle occurred in my mid-twenties, as I entered the work force.  I realized in large meetings that I was missing an awful lot of what was being said by coworkers.  People, when they are not confident in what they are saying tend to be quieter, and well, some people just have smal...

Since the very nature of my job requires lots of interaction with clients, I'm going to see about getting a CI in my recently-dead ear. I can make out only about 10 percent of spoken words in that ear now so it's definitely candidate. Leaning towards the new Naida processor by Advanced Bionics. We'll see...

This is my first guest post, by fellow blogger John O'Connor -  bloggingwjohno.blogspot.com Perfect hearing is something that the average person really takes for granted. When people think of hearing loss, they often associate the condition with people who are old in age. Hearing loss is common in babies and young children. A person can be born deaf of suffer hearing loss gradually over time. Of the estimated 738,000 people in the U.S. who have experienced substantial hearing loss, 8 percent of those people fall under the age of 18 . People should understand that hearing loss is something that affects people from all backgrounds of all ages. Many people, especially children, are at risk for hearing loss. It is estimated that 15 percent of children between the ages of 6-19 years old have experienced low or high frequency hearing at the 16th decibel in one or both ears. Children who may be hard of hearing may find it hard to grasp certain concepts like word order or may hav...

Hearing aids, even the most powerful one, have their limits.  Many people, myself included, find themselves either near or past these limits and in the domain of cochlear implants (CI). Obviously CI are very expensive (some/most insurance will cover) and require hospitalization and surgery to implant.  Getting a CI also means that person can no longer have MRI scans performed unless the MRI machine is below a certain magnetic threshold or the magnet on the implant is surgically removed--though I am told the latter can be done outpatient. Researchers are working with a prototype of a new type of "hearing aid" that is "implanted" in the ear drum, a very minor surgery that is done outpatient.  The implant can reach 120 dB, which is fairly amazing.  More details on this link: http://www.fraunhofer.de/en/press/research-news/2013/april/regaining-proper-hearing-at-last.html

I know there are countless versions of this elsewhere, but here is mine: What do I call you? ·        Deaf ·        Hard of Hearing ·        Deaf and dumb (extremely rude, equivalent to the “N” word) ·        Deaf mute (rude/ignorant) ·        Hearing-impaired (well-meaning, but rude) Clarity matters more than volume It does not help to yell or talk really slowly or animated.   Speak clearly and normally at an acceptable volume.   Clarity is far more important than super loud volume.    Most importantly, face me. Why can’t you understand me well? People with accents are extremely difficult to understand for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing folks.   Also, men and women may be easier or more difficult to understand.   Background noise, especially other voices, makes it virtually im...

Last night's episode of Switched at Birth was particularly brave in pointing out what is an obvious fact to many, but some might choose to ignore:  Deaf cannot afford to blow good chances in life. To be fair, we could easily substitute dozens of other words in place of Deaf, and the sentence still holds true.  Some great examples include women in corporate America, minorities in certain situations, physically handicapped, etc etc etc.   Sure, nobody likes to face the truth when it's ugly, but discrimination still exists, even when it's not blatant, and sometimes we have to work harder than everyone else just to stay afloat. I'm really happy with the writers and I hope they continue to find good topics to expose truth, educate ignorance, and overall make our lives easier.