a more silent world

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.

I think there is a world of difference between what was done by Chelsea Lately and SNL. Chelsea made fun of something she was entirely ignorant about, thus truly insulting Deaf and our language.  I think she got what she deserved when people erupted against her.  I think she owes an apology for being rude. SNL, on the other hand, showed a very playful nature, and I think they did a parody in good humor and with a fair amount of knowledge.  I found the ASL part pretty funny, the Italian party absolutely hilarious, and the Spanish part really funny too.  It's just my opinion, but I think if you're offended by the SNL skit, you may want to grow thicker skin and laugh along. I'm open to comments as to why it was insulting.  Marlee's opinion carried no weight with me, though.

Well I guess it's time to get back in for an adjustment.  I graphed my audiograms over the years.

I went to see Dark Knight Rises tonight, so I got to use the caption glasses again.  This time armed with the information from my last post, I adjusted them and got even better performance from them. The little box thing that the glasses plug into has three buttons:  the middle button is "menu" and then a + and - button.  I pressed menu and adjusted the brightness of the captions to where I wanted them.  Then I pressed menu again and was able to adjust the captions "near", "mid", or "far".  This was really wonderful and solved my major complaint from last time.  My vision is normal, but setting the captions to "far" meant that the captions were much closer to the screen in terms of focusing my eyes to see the movie or the captions  (set to near, it feels more like changing focus from he movie screen to a mobile phone in your hand, which caused me fatigue my first time). The only remaining complaint focuses around the weight of the g...

I simply cannot believe that five years has blown by like a freight train.  It seems like yesterday I walked into that beginning class and took like 2 minutes to finger spell my 5-letter name. It has been a wonderful experience, and I have met some people I hope to know the rest of my life.  Even after five years, I still feel like somewhat of a noob.  I guess I have to keep remembering that many of the people I meet have been signing all or most of their lives.  Nonetheless, I am ultimately thankful for my new ability to successfully use an interpreter! I hope I can attend, or even help set up some more local casual events.  There don't seem to be many right now, and it would be great to use my ASL more with fluent signers.