Improved technology for the hearing-impaired

Hmmm.

Hmmm?

Argh, just read the Wall Street Journal article he links to -- if he's happy, fine, but THAT is what pisses me off.

It's scanned, so can't copy and paste, but the whole story of sweet little 4-year-old Kordell, who got an implant last year, pushes all of my buttons. "His verbal skills are similar to those of an infant." "Before, when he wanted something, he just cried... it was frustrating because he couldn't hear me and couldn't express what he wanted."

What about SIGNING?!!!!!!!!! Sozlet was expressing pretty much whatever she wanted when she was 18 months old via signing.

<stew>

That's what gets me above all else, how people become locked into this medical model of fixing hearing and meanwhile this kid has lost a minimum of 4 years of language acquisition -- which he COULD have had via ASL!!! Even if the cochlear implant is perfect from now on (and what they point to as evidence of its efficacy, a year in, is pitifully sparse IMO), this kid's life has gotten off to an impoverished start.

That is, indeed, disgusting.





Soz - would cochlear implant possibly help somebody like me, with progressive nerve deafness, if my hearing really goes?

Now it's my turn: ....hmmmm.

Possibly. It's the possibly that is the other set of buttons that get pushed easily -- so many people hope, so many people's hopes are dashed. And then the ones for whom it does work out (or who say so -- there are a lot of cases of people who do the whole "I'm cured!" thing and then, down the line, admit amongst tears that while the audiogram is better life stuff is still too difficult, and they just didn't want to disappoint all the people who were happy with the good news by saying so) trumpet it and get a whole new group hoping.

The very variability is a big part of the story. Sometimes they work, a lot of times they don't, and it's really hard to predict which it will be.

That said, someone who has been hearing most of his/ her life and then loses hearing late has a better chance than most. Say a 17% chance instead of a 8% chance... or whatever. (Totally made-up numbers, loosely based on what I've observed first-hand.)

I recall your earlier comments, sozobe. Seems like the rate of dissatisfication was in the 90% range, if memory serves. This was a year or more ago.

That sounds about right. Very few of the people I know lost their hearing late in life and got them, mostly because very few people lose their hearing late in life to the point where hearing aids are not sufficient. The one person I know personally was devastated. (Hopes up, hopes dashed, holed up in her house for a year before venturing to my office.) Others I read about, like this guy.

Thanks, Soz.

It is also good to hear that late losers are unlikely to get deaf enough not to benefit from aids.

But - I have been slowly losing my hearing all my life!

I so need an aid now - I wonder if we sell the disposable ones over here, I cant afford a proper one, still - and I am gonna be working just wih little kids, now - them with the little, soft, piping voices - the ones I can't hear!

For you, Deb. We've sort of corrupted the Albuquerque thread.

I haven't checked into the disposables, but no doubt someone could send you a package, if they would make it through customs.

Thank you Roger!

Oh interesting re signing.

I would have NO problem with that - but professionally - no help at all, except once in a blue moon.

Hey if y'all get webcams I could give you lessons.

Your case is unusual there, dlowan, as I imagine having an interpreter in the room with you while doing your job would *not* work.

Well, I have done it for deaf clients, of course.

But no, not possible for normal work, too intimate. Plus, a full time interpreter just for me? Lol! Not in this life.

Though, I must say, the quality of the interpreters for deaf people has been consistently high - NOT true for the "ordinary" interpreters. Some of them have been utterly disgusting.

Wouldn't work with the cam I used to have. Still have, as a matter of fact, but haven't checked to see if it even works on the present machine under XP Home. You could go for coffee, come back, and your viewer wasn't sure you had left.

I don't think the Abq thread minds being earjacked...

BBB


I thought the topic important enough to start this new thread.

BBB

Article in Washington Post today on videophones re conversational aid for those who use ASL


Part of the article - jumping in after a description of an older process --

quoting,
This slow, cumbersome process, known as Internet protocol relay (IP Relay), stripped conversations of emotion, nuance and spontaneity. But many deaf people who are comfortable with American Sign Language (ASL) have begun using a faster, easier system called video relay service (VRS), one of several emerging technologies designed to improve life for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

To reach Kelly from her home in Frederick, Vincent now uses a videophone connected to a standard television monitor. When her call to a VRS interpreter is connected, Vincent's TV shows a split screen of two live images: the interpreter on one side and Vincent herself on the other. (The videophone includes a camera and transmits images over a high-speed Internet connection.)

Using sign language, Vincent asks the interpreter to call Kelly, who is frequently away from his office and available only via cell phone. When Kelly answers, the interpreter signs his words as Vincent watches on her screen. When Vincent signs back through the videophone, the interpreter voices the message on to Kelly with little pause.

Finally, Kelly said, "it's a normal conversation."

"This technology just really puts us on a level playing field," said Vincent in an interview assisted by an interpreter.

Lisa Marie Wilson, 27, a financial management specialist at the National Institutes of Health, agreed. "The videophone has changed the deaf community's lives -- changed our world," said Wilson, speaking through a VRS interpreter.

VRS is free to the deaf through the Americans with Disabilities Act. According to the Federal Communications Commission, 7,215 minutes of VRS interpretation was used in January 2002, the first month the service became generally available. By June 2005, usage was up to 2.1 million minutes.

Full Conversation
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Thanks to VRS, a phone conversation with a deaf person is no longer a dry, impersonal affair. One key reason is that VRS lets deaf people express and perceive mood and personality. Contrary to common belief, said Billy Kendrick, an interpreter at Visual Language Interpreting in the District, ASL is not English represented word for word through signs but rather a language all its own, with signs representing nuanced phrases and thoughts.

Meaning is also conveyed by how a deaf person uses space while communicating. For instance, signing "is generally enlarged when there's high emotion involved," like excitement, anger or shock, Kendrick said. A VRS interpreter might speak sharply or slow down his speech for emphasis to convey those feelings to the hearing party.

How many people use ASL is unknown. "Researchers in the field of deafness are confident [that the number is] more than 250,000, and would be surprised if it were more than 1 million," said Ross Mitchell, a research scientist at Gallaudet Research Institute, part of Gallaudet University, a college for the deaf in Northeast Washington.

Wilson says VRS has allowed her to remain close and communicate regularly with family in Boston.

Yep, VRS rocks.

I'm going to get one as soon as my DSL problems are fully resolved or we get cable, but have used friends'. It's awesome.