HLA of Delaware (HALDE)
Monthly Newsletter - February 2007
Volume 5, Issue 2
"We give help and hope to people with hearing loss"
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HLADE - Hearing Loss Association of Delaware
2400 West 4th Street
Wilmington, DE 19805
(302) 292-3066 (Voice/Relay)
hlade@comcast.net
HLA of Delaware (HLADE) is affiliated with the Hearing Loss Association of America, the largest organization in the world for people who are deaf, hard of hearing or late-deafened.
HLADE is an information, education, support and self-help non-profit 501 (3)( c) organization.
Note: EDITOR'S DEADLINE DATE FOR NEWSLETTER IS THE LAST DAY OF PREVIOUS MONTH FOR FOLLOWING MONTH'S NEWSLETTER.
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Linda's Sound-Off:
Did you ever have a life long dream fulfilled? Well, last weekend, I did! I went to the Metropolitan Opera at the Lincoln Center in New York City and saw "La Boheme" by the famous composer Puccini.
It was the first time I had ever seen an opera in person but I had wanted to go to the "Met" - the ultimate in opera houses in the U.S. for years! But I never thought it would be worth it since I could not understand the words because of my hearing loss.
It was a very cold day, but when I set foot inside the building, I immediately began to get warmed up! I went to see the exhibit of the jewels worn by famous opera singer Maria Callas and they were gorgeous!
Then, the excitement swelled as I walked into the spectacular hall with thousands of others. The exquisite chandelier in the gold leaf ceiling sparkled.
Then the music began and the embroidered gold curtain was raised as the opera begun. Years ago, it never would have happened that there would be captioning of the Italian in English at EVERY seat.
I could push a red button and the captions automatically came on and I was able to enjoy every word! Hearing the music was great but now, for the first time, understanding the words and music together made it an awesome experience!
I was spellbound from the sight, the sound, and as the opera story unfolded, I could feel the myriad of emotions along with the opera stars symbiotic with what I was feeling inside.
It was truly a magical feeling as I was transported in time.
What a joy that it was that I and many others with hearing loss could have captions and/or infrared listening systems to enjoy what a few years ago would have been impossible!
The opera is something that must be experienced first hand, if only once in a lifetime to truly understand this art form. I never understood what people really meant when they talked about going to the opera.
Surely, the arts are something all persons should enjoy and accommodating people with hearing loss to enjoy opera or any other art form is something that we should all advocate for.
HLADE will certainly be advocating for accommodations in Delaware arts this year and hope you will join us so we can make a magical "once in a lifetime" soul-filling experience possible like I had at the "Met"!
Yours in advocacy,
LINDA
Linda S. Heller, M.A.C.C.C.A.
State Coordinator
SAVE THE DATE!
Regional Hearing Loss Association of America Conference
October 5 - 7, 2007
Hilton Harrisburg & Towers
One North Second Street
Harrisburg, PA 17101 717-237-6427
Conference description: This will be the first Hearing Loss Association regional conference of Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, the 4 states which comprise Region II of the Hearing Loss Association of America governing board.
The conference is designed to give participants the opportunity to explore new hearing technologies and to learn more about coping with hearing loss. The conference will attract attendees from several nearby states, as well as from the four sponsoring states.
Linda Heller is a conference co-chair.
BRING A FRIEND TO HLADE EVENTS!
NEW HLADE HEARING LOSS ACADEMY CLASSES
FORMING IN DOVER!
So if you're interested, please email hlade@comcast.net or call (302) 292-3066. HLADE will teach classes at any location across the state if there are 10 or more people who want to know more about hearing loss, sign language or any other subject with hearing loss!
NEWS YOU CAN USE!
Advocacy Works!
Julia Sullivan, HLADE board member and HLADE's representative to the Delaware Telecommunications Advisory Board, recently reported good news!
The Hearing Loss Association announced that Internet Protocol (IP) telephone relay calls have been approved by the Federal Communications Commission for Delaware and around the nation.
To learn more about IP phone calls, go to this HLA link below. HLADE is working with others to get CAPTEL in Delaware. For more information go to the www.hearingloss.org/advocacy/TC20.asp
Hearing Loss Association's Brenda Battat & others make progress on cell phone compatibility to the FCC! Below is excerpt from Telecommunications news
ADVOCATES FOR HEARING IMPAIRED PRESS FOR NEW HAC BENCHMARKS
Advocates for the hearing impaired say the FCC should adopt additional benchmarks to ensure that more digital mobile phones are compatible with hearing aids, and they say they are negotiating new milestones with the wireless industry.
For their part, hearing aid manufacturers say the Commission should analyze what obstacles remain to greater deployment of hearing aid compatible (HAC) mobile phones, and they express concern that there has been "a constant chipping away at the regulatory structure."
In joint comments filed in Wireless Telecommunications docket 06-203, seven entities that advocate on behalf of the hearing impaired hailed the progress that has been made in ensuring mobile phones are compatible with hearing aids, but they stress that more work needs to be done.
The Commission sought comments by today as the staff prepares a report on the agency's hearing aid compatibility (HAC) rules for digital mobile phones, which were adopted in 2003.
The Commission plans to use the report to consider whether it should modify its HAC requirements, including adopting benchmarks past 2008, when half of all digital phones for each air interface must meet the acceptable interference standard.
"The FCC's 2003 mandates have, in fact, been effective in increasing the ability of hearing aid users to locate and use digital wireless telephones," the hearing-impaired advocate groups said.
"However, more still needs to be done to give people with hearing loss equivalent access to the wireless phone system that is used worldwide."
"At the time that the above benchmarks were adopted," the organizations added, "they represented a compromise among consumers and industry. Consumers understood the technical challenges that faced industry and therefore agreed to the above phase-in.
But we remain concerned about the future of cell phone accessibility." The problem could only worsen: 31 million Americans currently suffer from hearing loss, and the figure is expected to reach 40 million by 2010, the organizations said.
The organizations said they are "currently participating in negotiations with members of the wireless industry in an attempt to determine mutually agreeable benchmarks for a new phase-in of the hearing aid compatibility requirements. . . It is our hope to reach an agreement and present these benchmarks to the FCC during the reply stage of this proceeding."
In addition to requiring that a higher percentage of handsets are compatible with hearing aids, the groups said the Commission should encourage the industry to work toward meeting the higher technical rating - M4 and T4 - for them.
If companies fail to accomplish that, the agency should mandate it, the organizations said.
The organizations said the additional actions were needed because carriers aren't always following the current HAC regulations to the letter of the law.
For example, many mobile phone stores still don't allow consumers to test phones, they said. Also, many store personnel aren't familiar enough with HAC handsets to help customers. In addition, the HAC labeling of handsets has sometimes differed between their boxes and information on carriers' web sites.
Filling the comments were the Hearing Loss Association of America, the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the American Academy of Audiology, the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network, the National Association of the Deaf, and Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
For more information go to www.hearingloss.org
TV PBS program "Through Deaf Eyes", March 2lst, 9:00 PM, ET, 2 hr. documentary, inspired by the exhibit at Gallaudet U. entitled "History through Deaf Eyes". For more information go to website: www.pbs.org/wnet/soundandfury/culture/deafhistory.html
Folic acid may prevent age-related hearing loss
By Stephen Daniells
03/01/2007- Supplements of folic acid may prevent age-related hearing loss in older men and women, says a new double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial from the Netherlands.
The study, published in the new issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, followed 728 men and women between the ages of 50 and 70 randomly assigned to receive either a folic acid supplement (800 micrograms per day) or placebo for three years.
Lead author Jane Durga and her colleagues from Wageningen University and Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences, and University Hospital Maastricht, reported that the folic acid-supplemented group exhibited lower age-related hearing loss in the low frequency region.
However, it is not known if such benefits would be observable in countries like the US and Canada where mandatory fortification occurs.
Folate is found in foods such as green leafy vegetables, chick peas and lentils, and an overwhelming body of evidence links has linked folate deficiency in early pregnancy to increased risk of neural tube defects (NTD) - most commonly spina bifida and anencephaly - in infants.
This connection led to the 1998 introduction of public health measures in the US and Canada, where all grain products are fortified with folic acid - the synthetic, bioavailable form of folate.
The researchers report that, at the start of the study, the average threshold for hearing in the low frequency range (0.5 to 2 kHz) was 11.7 decibels (dB), and 34.2 dB in the high frequency range (4 to 8 kHz).
At the end of the study the thresholds had increased for both folic acid and placebo groups, meaning a louder noise was required before the participants registered the noise.
However, the increase was lower in the supplemented group in the low frequency range (1.0 versus 1.7 dB increase for folic acid versus placebo groups, respectively).
No significant difference in threshold decline in the higher frequency region was observed.
The researchers suggest that hearing loss may be linked to homocysteine levels, which could be reduced by folic acid supplementation.
"Folic acid supplementation slowed the decline in hearing of the speech frequencies associated with aging in a population from a country without folic acid fortification of food. "
"The effect requires confirmation, especially in populations from countries with folic acid fortification programs," concluded the researchers.
In an accompanying editorial, Robert Dobie from the University of California, Davis said that if such a benefit could be applied generally then a five-decibel decrease in age-related hearing loss might be observed over a 20-year period. This would lead to a subsequent significant reduction in the need for hearing aids. "
Source: Annals of Internal Medicine 2 January 2007, Volume 146, Issue 1, Pages 1-9,"Effects of Folic Acid Supplementation on Hearing in Older Adults - A Randomized, Controlled Trial"
Authors: J. Durga, P. Verhoef, L.J.C. Anteunis, E. Schouten, and F.J. Kok
2 January 2007, Volume 146, Issue 1, Pages 63-64,"Folate Supplementation and Age-Related Hearing Loss",Author: R.A. Dobie ,NewsSource: Decision News .
BOOK OF THE MONTH
Sound Therapy : Music to Recharge your Brain. How to increase energy, reduce stress and improve hearing in 90 days. 205 pages.
The book by Patricia and Rafaele Joudry, now in its eleventh edition is the fascinating story of Patricia's transformation through Sound Therapy.
It also explains how to listen and what benefits to expect for many conditions, including tinnitus: ringing in the ears, chronic fatigue, insomnia, stress and anxiety, hearing loss, sound sensitivity, dizziness, Menieres syndrome, jet lag, ADD and other learning problems, memory and concentration.
In the foreword the late Yehudi Menuhin, the world famous violinist writes: "I was fascinated by this book which I read between dawn and breakfast in one sitting."
This book serves as the listener's manual and is essential reading for anyone undertaking the Sound Therapy program.
To ensure successful application of the program, the tapes are only sold to people who have purchased or have already read the book. For those unable to read, a family member or other support person should read the book and act as their advisor.
ISBN 1 876315 24 5 , Published by Sound Therapy International 2004
PARENTS CORNER
Parent's Link of the Month" "
"Funding Assistive Technology in the School System" by Diane Smith, Esq. Booklet, National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems. Go to website: www.nls.org/specedat.htm
WEBSITE OF THE MONTH!
Williams Sound, Inc has a "knowledge center" with a nice list of resource links for hearing loss. For more information, go to www.williamssound.com/knowledgecenter.aspx
TECHNOLOGY CORNER
This is a FUTURE technology 'table talk' by IDEO is a range of bar furniture that allows clear conversations even when a background noise is very loud.
A microphone system is linked to a conductive strip running round
the edge of the table which uses the same T-loop technology that
has been used by hearing aid users in banks and theatres for years.
Customers simply buy inexpensive ear pieces at the bar which pick
up sounds within the loop and amplify them. www.ideo.com
PERSONAL NEWS
Welcome new member, Audrey Greco of Karasch Associates, a court reporting and captioning company based in Wilmington. And thanks to Karasch Associates for their donation to HLADE for general funds.
Valarie Sherrill is a new President of the Delaware Black Deaf Advocates. For more information, contact Loretta Sarro, Public Information Officer at the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation at Loretta.sarro@state.de.us
Thanks to Kathy Herel for donating used hearing aids that HLADE will donate to someone who needs them!
Linda Heller has been nominated as Delaware Health and Social Services Employee of the Year.
Lois Kinckiner and Shelley Minch got a close look at rare Wyeth paintings when they were representing HLADE at Winterthur on the Winterthur Accessibility Committee.
Don't forget to send in your 2007 membership dues. You can download the membership form.
Know a person with a hearing loss in Delaware who has made the news or accomplished something special, then tell us!! We will feature them in the newsletter! hlade@comcast.net or call (302) 292-3066.
Quote of the Month
"You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly." - Sam Keen
Calling for Volunteers! HLADE is growing! Would you like to help HLADE as a member, or a board member, office help or as a technical assistant or newsletter editor or help spread the word about HLADE?
We can use all kinds of skills! Help HLADE grow and become involved with a project-it is the best way to meet new people and make a difference! Contact Linda Heller or email hlade@comcast.net or call (302) 292-3066.
Don't complain -make a change- get involved to make a difference!
If you want to share some Breaking News, email hlade@comcast.net
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO ALL!!!
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