Four family members from one family received cochlear implants during the same week in 2004. Can’t believe they did that because some people don’t recover well from the surgery (me).
The parents had their surgeries one week apart, but it took me over a week to recover from the side effects. Nonetheless, it’s an interesting story and interview. Not the first time a family has undergone cochlear implants together. I know there was a husband and wife that also went through it.
Four Cochlear Implant Family
Deaf Bloggers Talking Case
Deaf bloggers have “been using the Internet to keep track of developments in the case and dispel stereotypes about deaf people.” The case involves the murder of Darlene VanderGiesen, a deaf woman in Sioux Falls, where the suspect is another deaf person. Whoa. According to the article and the bloggers who are quoted, people believe that deaf people don’t have the capability to kill someone.
Well, obviously murdering is wrong… no matter who you are. I’d like for all of us not to have the ability to murder, but deaf people can certainly do it just like anyone else of any race, age, or gender. What a topic to debate.
Bloggers mentioned: Kokonut Pundits, Jamie Berke of About.com, and Ricky Taylor.
Study of Sign Language Growing Popular
Whenever I meet someone who learns I’m deaf, I often get “I’ve taken ASL classes” or “I want to learn ASL.” I think it’s great and it’s obviously a growing language as this article reports the study of sign language drastically increasing.
I loved taking Spanish and French in high school. It’s a shame so few high schools offer much more than that. Mine had German, Latin, and Russian. A friend of mine’s daughters are taking Japanese. Many people from countries other than the U.S. are fluent in at least two languages. How many Americans are not counting those whose family members speak another language?
Restaurants Hires Deaf Workers
What do you do when you get sick of the politics in the hotel business?Open your own restaurant. What makes this one different is that it proactively hires people who are deaf to work there. One of its owners is deaf.
Deaf Students and Technology
I often wonder how different my teen years would’ve been if I had the same opportunities as the Deaf and hearing students of today with the technology available to them.
Long Distance CapTel Calls No Longer Free
From Deafnetwork:
Some CapTel (captioned telephone) users have complained that it is not fair that they have to pay for their long distance calls while VRS (video relay service) calls remain free. Comparing these two types of relay service is confusing because currently they are billed differently. CapTel is more akin to traditional relay because it is run through the phone line and therefore it is possible to know where a call originated and whether or not it is a LD or local call. Whereas VRS is Internet based like IP relay and there is no way to know where the call is coming from. Because of this, charges for Internet based relay calls, IP and VRS, are currently waived due to the billing issue.
New Cochlear Implant
New Cochlear Implant using ribbon technology from University of Michigan might help improve hearing for profound deaf people and make the surgery less invasive.
Here’s another article on the University of Michigan research.
Lawsuit Filed against Target for Inaccessible Site
A student from UC Berkeley who is blind is suing Target because its Web site isn’t usable for those who can’t see. The student says the site is missing the alt attribute and uses image maps to go to other parts of the site that people with sight impairments can’t use.
This could be the lawsuit that I had in my 2005 predictions… that there would be a major lawsuit related to lack of accessibility. I was one year too late, but I’m not happy about that. You’d think by now companies would get the message about building accessible sites. Even the Torino Olympics site remembered the alt attribute this time and used “” anytime it wasn’t needed.
The good thing about this lawsuit is that Target is a big company and it may be a way to send a message to other companies.
Real-time Text Conversations
In the UK, Real-time texting for deaf people says that there is software that allows deaf people to have real-time text conversations using a mobile phone, but the organization that created the service has not fulfilled a legal obligation to make the services accessible.
Statistics on Hearing Problems
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders (NIDCD) has published statistics that provide insight into who has a hearing disorder. Here is what the organization has reported:
- Hearing loss is greater in men.
- Almost 12 percent of men who are 65 to 74 years of age are affected by tinnitus. Tinnitus is identified more frequently in white individuals and the prevalence of tinnitus is almost twice as frequent in the South as in the Northeast.
- Approximately 28 million Americans have a hearing impairment.
- Hearing loss affects approximately 17 in 1,000 children under age 18. Incidence increases with age: Approximately 314 in 1,000 people over age 65 have hearing loss and 40 to 50 percent of people 75 and older have a hearing loss.
- About 2 to 3 out of every 1,000 children in the U.S. are born deaf or hard-of-hearing. Nine out of every 10 children who are born deaf are born to parents who can hear.
- Ten million Americans have suffered irreversible noise induced hearing loss, and 30 million more are exposed to dangerous noise levels each day.
- Only 1 out of 5 people who could benefit from a hearing aid actually wears one.
- Approximately 59,000 people worldwide have received cochlear implants. About 250,000 people would be good candidates for a cochlear implant. In the U.S., about 13,000 adults and nearly 10,000 children have cochlear implants.