April 14, 2008
Noise is all around us, making noise related hearing loss more and more prevalent at all ages. The annual International Noise Awareness Day brings the noise and the problems associated with it into focus.
“It is time to address the threat that noise poses to hearing, health, learning and behavior,” said Amy Boyle, Director of the Noise Center of the League for the Hard of Hearing.This year, the International Noise Awareness Day will be held on Wednesday, 16th of April.
Among the many activities planned during International Noise Awareness Day, the public will be asked to observe the Quiet Diet - one minute of quiet, regardless of their location, from 2:15 P.M. to 2:16 P.M.
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March 7, 2008
La investigadora argentina Ana Belén Elgoyhen, doctora en Bioquímica, profesora de Farmacología de la UBA e investigadora independiente del Conicet, recibirá en París el Premio L Oréal-Unesco For Women in Science para la región de América latina por su contribución al entendimiento de las bases moleculares de la audición.
Con sólo 49 años, Elgoyhen es la segunda argentina en recibir esta prestigiosa distinción. “¡Esto es como ganarse el Nobel femenino! Es un gran honor, una alegría enorme”, festejó Elgoyhen.
Según los especialistas, el trabajo de la científica será útil para hacer frente muchas patologías de la audición.
“Todo apareció por casualidad. Hallamos los genes que sintetizan unas proteínas denominadas receptores de acetilcolina”, recordó la científica.
En 1994, mientras realizaba investigaciones en el campo de la neurología en el Instituto Salk de California, Elgoyhen identificó los nervios receptores del oído que intervienen en los procesos de modulación de los sonidos y los hacen comprensibles.
Se trata de un sistema que llamamos eferente coclear, que permite que medie la comunicación entre las células del sistema nervioso central y las del oído.”, explicó.
March 7, 2008
6 de marzo de 2008, Suecia:Los niveles de ruido en la escuela son demasiado altos. Los niños se cansan, pierden la concentración, se estresan y tienen problemas para oír lo que se dice.
| Por término medio, los escolares están expuestos a niveles de sonido de entre 65 y 75 dB en un día escolar normal. Este es uno de los resultados de un estudio llevado a cabo en tres aulas de Uppsala, Suecia, durante más de 150 días. Algunos días, la media de nivel de ruido alcazaba la elevada cifra de 80 dB, nivel en el que los empleados de una fábrica están obligados a utilizar protectores auditivos.
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| Demasiado ruido en el colegio agota la energía de los alumnos. Esto es especialmente cierto entre los chicos que ya padecen una pérdida de audición.
“Los niños con discapacidad auditiva tiene considerables dificultades para seguir el ritmo de la clase en este tipo de entorno,” dice Robert Wålinder, investigador de Arbets och Miljömedicin en Uppsala.
Algunos niños se van directamente a dormir después del colegio de puro agotamiento. Otros efectos de los elevados niveles de ruido incluyen el aumento de la presión sanguínea y la acumulación en el cuerpo de hormonas de estrés.
En una de las aulas, se facilitaron protectores auditivos a los niños durante las horas en las que necesitaban trabajar de forma individual en clase. Otra solución es acondicionar las aulas con materiales y muebles que amortigüen el ruido.
El comportamiento de los niños también se ve afectado por los niveles de ruido. Cuando varios niños hablan a la vez, van elevando las voces para hacerse oír por encima de los demás empeorando enormemente las condiciones del aula.
Fuente: Auris
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March 7, 2008
Personal relationships are adversely affected by hearing loss. Hearing impaired couples are hardest hit, but relations with friends, family and colleagues suffer, as well.
Among the 27 million adult Americans with hearing loss relations with the spouse or partner are most strongly affected by the hearing problems, according to a study conducted by Harris Interactive for Cochlear Americas. The study was conducted online in the United States among 2,576 adults aged 18 years and older.
”It is very important for people in relationships to connect with each other, verbally and emotionally. Those who don’t feel heard, figuratively or literally, can feel isolated or depressed,” said Dr. John Gray, the best-selling author of ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus’. “The good news is that hearing loss can be helped and relationships don’t have to be put at risk.”
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Frustration with hearing impaired people
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According to the study, 54 percent admitted that they find it frustrating to communicate with individuals who appear not to be paying attention due to their hearing loss. 32 percent acknowledged feeling actual irritation in such situations while 18 percent stated they feel ignored.
Almost half of the respondents with hearing loss had not sought treatment. Just 20 percent were aware of the many options currently available for treatment of hearing loss.
“It’s a tragedy that people don’t take action for their hearing health when so many treatment options are available”, said Dr. Pat Chute, audiologist, professor and chair, Division of Health Professions, Mercy College, to Medical News Today. “Hearing solutions exist for all types of hearing loss, including therapies such as cochlear implants, Baha or hearing aids”.
Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com
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February 27, 2008
“¿Qué importa la sordera cuando oye la mente?
La sordera verdadera, la sordera incurable es la de la mente.” Victor Hugo, poeta romántico francés, novelista y dramaturgo, 1802-1885.
January 17, 2008
Surfing the net I came across a blog called About Real English where I left a comment.
“Real English is primarily Video for Studentes and Teachers in the fields of ESL /EFL… There is also a suscription site containing lessons about the videos, but the subscription service will soon be eliminated, and the lessons will be free-access.”
Its blogger, Michael Marzio, e-mailed me and told me that he had a post about Real English for the Deaf.
I would like to share it with you.
Thank you, Mike 
January 8, 2008
Presented by: Dr. Sam Slike & Pam Berman, Bloomsburg University
When: January 8, 2008 : 2pm - 3pm EST
Where: Online on your computer - Register Here
Dr. Sam Slike, a professor at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania will discuss his use of Wimba to provide college courses to deaf and hard of hearing students.
His innovative courses use a sign language interpreter broadcast through a web cam (and simultaneously broadcast via a Sorenson videophone); closed captioning of spoken lecture material via Caption Colorado; PowerPoint slides; text chat; and spoken lecture.
His presentation will provide an overview of the deaf/hh population; general challenges encountered in providing equal access of information for this group of individuals; and creating an online course for deaf/hh and hearing students using Wimba as the delivery tool.
Don’t forget that Wimba Classroom (the technology used to run this webinar) is a virtual classroom tool that allows your organization to satisfy many Section 508 guidelines.
January 4, 2008
“Most developers don’t think about individuals who are deaf when they think of web accessibility. For too many developers, web accessibility consists of adhering to a few guidelines that ensure accessibility to screen readers for the blind. On one level, this is understandable. People who are blind will have the most trouble, since the web is a visual medium… or is it?”
“On a basic level, the web is information. That information can be presented visually or auditorily. It can be presented in graphics, video, audio, animation, or in text. Our most common experience with web content is what we view through the portal of our web browser, which generally consists of text and graphics, but the web is much more than this. Anyone who has ever used RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, or Quicktime knows that these programs can play video content from the web.”
If you work on the net - blogging, designing websites, etc.- “you need to know in order to make web content accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing. I hope that with increased understanding comes increased appreciation to such individuals, and an increased commitment to providing content that is accessible to them.”
“Video, audio, and multimedia content is becoming more and more common on the web. Video content is available on most major news web sites, even some local news web sites. Unfortunately for those who are deaf, captioned audio is still almost nonexistent on the web.”
“The tools to caption web video exist, and the concept of captioning has been around for decades. It’s just a matter of doing it.”
Further Reading
January 4, 2008
EL SORDO POSTLOCUTIVO Y LA SORDERA
Para muchas de estas personas, la aparición de la sordera fue brusca, de un día para otro. Para otras muchas de estas personas, la aparición de la sordera fue lenta.
Vivir y/o trabajar en un entorno ruidoso, una inadecuada medicación con fármacos nocivos para el oído , un traumatismo o una enfermedad pueden dejar como secuela la pérdida total o parcial de la audición.
Todas estas cosas nos trasladan, de forma involuntaria, de una vida de plenos oyentes a los que pertenecíamos, a una nueva vida carente de todas las sensaciones que el oído nos prestaba.
Todos los oyentes son candidatos potenciales para ser sordos postlocutivos, nadie está a salvo.
April 8, 2007
Welcome to this blog which will intend to inform you about this disability some people - me included- suffer and to meet some more postlocutive people, too. I would like to share this experience - not very nice- of losing the hearing ability.
