SHHH Boulder Chapter

November 2001 Newsletter (text)

Nov 26, 2001

November 2001 SHHH Boulder Newsletter


BOULDER CHAPTER NEWS
Saturday, November 17th, 2001 2-4 pm at the Boulder Public Library - Meadows Branch. Presentation by John McClanahan from Cochlear Corporation on "Cochlear Implant Insurance Issues."

By Debbie Mohney, President

This time of year, when the change in weather brings pressure changes and "cold" season starts, I always wonder if my difficulty hearing is in my head (literally stuffed up), in my hearing aids or a dead battery. So, down the list I go until I can either hear well again or accept whatever it is causing the problem. Even when you get the right technology in place, it always comes back to hearing loss. I feel even more grateful for what I have these days, with captioning and other devices designed to help me see what I don't hear.

Our next meeting will be Saturday, November 17th, 2001 2-4 PM at the Boulder Library - Meadows Branch. Our speaker will be John McClanahan from Cochlear Corporation speaking about "Cochlear Implant Insurance Issues". I heard John speak at a workshop at the SHHH National Convention in June 2001. The issues surrounding insurance coverage for cochlear implants can be complex and confusing. Many people are denied coverage outright, others are told that the implant is covered only to end up with a bill, and yet others have no problems with the billings. Ann Pruitt will be running the meeting this month in my absence. The Induction Loop will be used and captioning will be provided.

In October, Dr. Ron Cole presented "Baldi" - an interactive speech toolkit developed at the Center for Spoken Language Understanding (CSLU) at the University of Colorado for teaching deaf children how to talk. He showed us the episode which aired on Primetime Live in the Spring of 2001. He then showed us how easy it is to use the program, the various applications it can be used for, and invited us to use the program on our own computers. The speech toolkit can be downloaded free of charge from http:\\cslu.cse.ogi.edu. Dr. Cole encouraged us to consider working on a program to teach lip-reading. If you would like to be included in this project, please e-mail me at: debbie@mountainocean.com. The whole audience was mesmerized by the speech toolkit and the technology which never tires of teaching. We appreciated Dr. Cole spending the time to show us this exciting program!

In late October, Ann Pruitt and I went to the Hear-N-Colorado meeting, where there were 4 SHHH National members. The requirements to become a group (not a chapter) are to have 4 national members willing to sign a letter of intent, and the 4 members at the meeting signed the letter. We welcome the Fort Collins group to SHHH! I enjoyed talking to everyone, and it is so heartwarming to hear that people are happy to find other people with hearing loss to talk to. Hearing Loss doesn't have to be isolating!

Please make note of our December Holiday (Potluck) Party, write it in on your calendar and make plans to come! It will be held on Saturday, December 8th, 2001 12:30-3:30 PM, at the Villa Del Prado Clubhouse. The chapter will provide drinks and a main meat dish. Be thinking what side, meatless main dish or dessert you would like to contribute. There is always a large variety, and we never lack for food or company. So, please plan to attend!
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DENVER CHAPTER NEWS

Sat. November 17. We are planning another "show and tell" program at which we will demonstrate the special devices that you can "piggy-back" to your hearing aids and help in special ways in and around your home.

Please bring any devices you care to that you have found and use, such as alarm devices, etc. It should be fun and informative to find how we have discovered accessory tools that work for us in coping and strategizing in our daily living.

Plan to arrive at 1:00 PM for socialization and of course refreshments. Program will commence at 1:30.

Meeting place: Center for Hearing, Speech and Language. 4280 Hale Parkway. Turn East on 12th Ave. from Colo. Blvd., and you will merge into Hale Parkway within a block. See schematic map below. Questions and inquiries may be directed to Dave Conant, xxx-xxx-xxxx. See you soon!
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Ann Pruitt's News and Notes
SHHH Colorado State Coordinator
Debbie Mohney, Asst. SHHH Colorado State Coordinator

If you weren't part of the crowd at our last Boulder Chapter meeting, you missed a great show. I was genuinely fascinated by the "Baldi" project presented by Dr. Ron Cole of CU's Center for Spoken Language Understanding. When he showed the "ABC Primetime" video segment about Baldi, I was hooked. Next thing we knew, we were discussing a Baldi application to help hard of hearing adults with lip-reading and more. Too bad Diane Sawyer of ABC wasn't there to see all the excitement!

I thought the real-time captioner did a superb job keeping up with everything. How did we ever live without captioning?! I want it everywhere.

Next up for Boulder Chapter is John McClanahan of the Cochlear Corp. in Englewood, which has provided us with a number of speakers over the past 15 years. I urge our current cochlear implant recipients and anyone contemplating a CI to be sure to attend Nov. 17th. This should be a good forum for the CI in general besides the in$urance angle.

Let's see....Pres. Debbie in PA, VP Diana in NC. That means you get me to conduct the Nov. chapter meeting by default. I had 6 1/2 years of practice; it's been a while but I'm ready to rumble. Since Jack Gibson went to the 2001 SHHH Leadership Conference, I expect him to step up, too. Jack has a story to tell, since he flew out of Bethesda (and SHHH) on Sept. 10th, and then went to Italy on vacation but had problems trying to get back home.

Congratulations to the new SHHH group in Fort Collins. Not only did they sign up as an affiliate when Debbie and I visited them in October, the next day one of their leaders, Gladys Russell, won a community volunteer leadership award. Along with her plaque from the mayor himself, Gladys was given a very nice cash award for the group she started over five years ago, Hear-N-Colorado. They were all quite floored at their sudden good fortune. Hey, good things happen when you join SHHH!

Speaking of which, everyone should have the three discount coupons sent by the SHHH National Director. Beth Wilson also enclosed a letter listing national activities and areas of special focus. One of the top priority issues in Advocacy is hearing aid insurance legislation. I say, "Go Get 'Em!" There is a group working on this for children in Colorado. (Of course, it seems like much of the money in this state goes to prisons and highways.)

Update on my new I-hate-Starkey digital hearing aids: the right one just made its SEVENTH trip to the repair lab. They've had it more than I have this year.

Enjoy what's left of this beautiful Fall season! See you soon.

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SHHH Boulder Chapter
President: Debbie Mohney
Vice-President: Dianna Attaway/Jack Gibson
Secretary: Karen Keil
Treasurer: Sue Gossett
SHHH Colorado State Coordinator: Ann Pruitt/Debbie Mohney
SHHH Central Denver Chapter
Chapter Contact: Dave Conant
Membership Contact: Marjorie von Frantzius

A major objective of SHHH is to develop a constituency of hard of hearing people. This cannot be achieved without members throughout the U.S. Members of SHHH groups and chapters should be members of SHHH National to help accomplish the goals that will benefit all hard of hearing people and at the same time receive the benefits of that national membership.

Individual: $25/USA, $35/Canada/Mexico, $45/Overseas (via airmail).
Professional: $35/USA, $45/Canada/Mexico, $55 /Overseas (via airmail).
(Other types of memberships include Library, Non-Profit Organization and Organization, etc.)

For information, send a SASE to SHHH, 7910 Woodmont Ave., Suite 1200, Bethesda, MD 20814.
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Quote of the month

It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars.
--- Garrison Keillor in Salon.com.

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Founder's Day
SHHH National has requested that all chapters consider participating in giving a donation (of any size) for Founder's Day in November. In that vein, the SHHH Boulder Chapter will gratefully accept all donations to help defray the costs of the real-time captioning, monthly newsletter mailings and introductory 3-month newsletter trials, as well as enabling the chapter to make a Founder's Day donation. All donations are fully tax-deductible, as the SHHH Boulder Chapter is a non-profit group with 501(c)(3) status. The chapter is also interested in getting the help of someone with grant writing experience so that these costs could be covered by a grant as well.
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Programmable Hearing Aids and Airport Security
From the Cochlear Implant YORKU forum

This is a summary of a post by Mardie Younglof regarding a warning about airport luggage scanners. One of her friends, Marjorie Thomson, Denver SHHH member, had a bad experience in which apparently an airport hand luggage scanner zapped the programs in her hearing aids. The warning could apply to cochlear implant processors, too.

Marjorie went through airport security in Vienna, Austria in which the attendants would not let her put her programmable computer in the box to hand over the scanner (like camera film) to be inspected. They made her take her programmable hearing aids off as well and put them in the box with the computer and left with them. She screamed but it was to no avail.

They used very strong electronic equipment on the hearing aids causing the programs to be zapped, and she had to travel all the way home to Denver not hearing or understanding spoken language. She had to get help with changing planes in New York. When she got to Denver, she went immediately to the audiologist who reprogrammed her hearing aids.
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OPEN-CAPTIONED MOVIE TITLE
LOCATION (See http://www.tripod.org for latest info)
DATES
Colorado Springs
K-PAX
Carmike Chapel Hills
December 11, 12
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HOH-LD-News, Vol. IX, Issue 5, November 3, 2001
FDA Approves MED-EL's Cochlear Implant

HOH-LD Editor: Cochlear Corporation makes Cochlear Implants (CIs). So does Advanced Bionics. Did you know that Med-El also makes CIs. Long a major supplier to the rest of the world, they have recently received FDA approval to distribute their CI in the US. Here are excerpts from their press release.

MED-EL, a medical device company on the cutting edge of Cochlear Implant technology, has received U.S. FDA approval for the advanced COMBI 4O+ Cochlear Implant System. This allows severe to profoundly hearing impaired people to gain immediate access to the new advances of MED-EL technology, which includes the first FDA approved modular ear level speech processor -- TEMPO+. This device has performance characteristics equal to body worn processors, which allows up to 4 days of battery life. "I suffered for more than 20 years with severe hearing loss and a year ago, I woke up one morning in total deafness," states Paul Knaub, a cochlear implant recipient. "Thanks to MED-EL, today I can pick up a phone at work and take customer orders. I can go to stores and shop by myself. I can even understand the lyrics to songs again. I call it my miracle."

About MED-EL

Nearly 25 years ago, researchers who later founded MED-EL developed one of the world's first cochlear implants. Today, MED-EL is growing faster than any other cochlear implant company and is the global leader in innovative technology in this field. MED-EL products are the result of collaborative efforts by MED-EL engineers, surgeons, audiologists, therapists and, of course, implant users.

MED-EL has 14 regional offices worldwide including a North American Headquarters in Durham, North Carolina and Worldwide Headquarters in Innsbruck, Austria. MED-EL has implanted over 6,000 implants in over 258 clinics in 54 countries worldwide. To date there are over 5,000 advanced TEMPO+ BTE speech processors in use.

CONTACT: Valerie Dally of MED-EL Corporation, +1-919-572-2222, ext.3002, or vdally@medelus.com
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HOH-LD-News, Vol. IX, Issue 5, November 3, 2001

Now Hear This and Pay Attention!

HOH-LD Editor: Here's some interesting information from Cheryl Heppner's NVRC News. (Thanks, Cheryl :^) ).

In his February 20, 2001 article for the Washington Post, Don Oldenburg writes about Effective Listening and the "impact listening has on human activity."

Oldenburg cites the following statistics from the website of the International Listening Association (www.listen.org):

* We listen at 125-250 words per minute but think at 1,000-3,000 words per minute.

* About 85% of what we know we have learned by listening.

* We spend about 45% of the time listening.

* We are distracted, preoccupied or forgetful about 75% of the time.

* Immediately after listening to someone talk, we usually recall only about half of what we heard. Beyond that, we remember about 20% of what we hear.

* Less than 2% of us have had any formal training in listening skills.
*
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HOH-LD-News,Vol. VII, Issue 9
June 2, 2001

Do Congenitally Deaf People Benefit from Cochlear Implants?

It's becoming pretty well accepted within the hearing loss community that cochlear implants (CIs) can greatly improve the quality of life for people who are post-lingually deaf, i.e. who became deaf after acquiring language. The studies further indicate that people who have been deaf a shorter period of time and those who continue to process auditory input (e.g., using a hearing aid) generally tend to receive benefit faster than those who don't.

But what about people who are congenitally deaf, i.e., who were born deaf and have never heard or expressed spoken language. What is their experience with CIs?

The medical industry has generally been reluctant to implant congenitally deaf people, because early trials were not very successful. While congenitally deaf people quickly perceive and respond to sound, they were generally unable to understand spoken language. This is hardly surprising, never having heard it before! But these results and other factors led the medical industry to adopt much stricter criteria for implanting congenitally deaf people, compared to those who are post-lingually deaf.

A recent study entitled "Delayed Implantation of Congenitally Deaf Children and Adults" indicates that the criteria for implanting congenitally deaf people should be reexamined. The study was conducted by Susan B. Waltzman, PhD, J. Thomas Roland, Jr., MD, and Noel Cohen, MD, all from the Department of Otolaryngology at the New York University School of Medicine. They presented their results at the May 13 meeting of the American Neurotology Society.

The study focused on congenitally deaf adults and children implanted after the age of eight. Standard audiological tests were conducted prior to and after implantation. The majority of adults showed improvement in monosyllabic word identification, open set sentence recognition, and hearing in the presence of noise. All used their CIs on a regular basis, and all believed that their CIs enhanced their communication skills. The children also demonstrated significant improvement on a variety of audiological tests, and the younger the child at implantation, the greater the improvement.

Based upon these results, the researchers suggest the following conclusions:

1. Congenitally, long-termed profoundly hearing impaired children and adults can obtain substantial open set speech recognition after implantation using the currently available speech processing strategies.

2. There is a correlation between the age at implantation (and age of deafness) and the length of time the device was used with post-implant improvement.

3. A consistent increase in mean test scores demonstrates continued improvement in speech perceptual skills, but there is no evidence to assert that pre-implant performance predicts benefit from cochlear implantation.
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HOH-LD-News, Vol. VIII, Issue 6
August 11, 2001

Seven Tips for Locating, Screening CART Providers

HOH-LD Editor: It seems that CART has grown up before our very eyes. There are still too few reporters and other growing pains, but the field is well on its way to becoming a profession. Here is an article by Maureen McGuire and Pete Wacht. (There contact information is at the end of the article.) The article recently appeared in NVRC News. As always, we appreciate their permission to share their information with you.

If you're deaf or hard-of-hearing, you probably already know how CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) technology can help you fully participate in such activities as religious services, educational classes and seminars, or medical appointments. But do you know the best methods to find and screen CART providers? Below are seven tips from the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) to locate CART services and determine whether a CART provider is qualified to effectively and accurately perform realtime translation.

CART providers accompany people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing to meetings, medical appointments, religious services, schools and many other events, and using a stenotype machine and a laptop, they instantly transcribe the spoken words into text that a person with hearing loss can read on a laptop computer. NCRA is the professional organization for CART providers and other reporting-based professions such as court reporting and broadcast captioning. Accordingly, NCRA has a vested interest in ensuring that there are enough CART providers to meet the growing demand and that those offering their services are qualified, capable and competent.

NCRA is currently developing a professional certification for CART providers that will set minimum standards for those who provide this critical service.

SEVEN TIPS FOR LOCATING, SCREENING CART PROVIDERS

1. To find a CART provider in your area, check out "How to Locate a CART Provider" on NCRA's Web site at http://cart.ncraonline.org/CART_locate.html. You'll find links to NCRA's Professional Services Locator, which lists CART providers and includes their certifications, other credentials and areas of experience, and to the membership directory of CARTWheel, which is a voluntary association of CART providers committed to adhering to guidelines of quality service and who have been endorsed by deaf and hard-of-hearing consumers.

2. While you're at the NCRA Web site, you can familiarize yourself with NCRA's CART Provider's Manual, which provides information on the professional skills expected of qualified CART providers, and review Sections III and IV of NCRA's Guidelines for Professional Practice, which set out the ethical behavior expected of CART providers.

3. The Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) designation at this time is a requisite for the qualified CART provider. The RPR certifies the entry-level reporter's ability to provide a verbatim record at speeds ranging from 180-225 words per minute with a minimum accuracy of 95 percent. NCRA also recommends that CART providers earn the Certified Realtime Reporter (CRR) designation, in which a CART provider has proven his or her ability to write realtime at variable speeds ranging from 180-200 words per minute with a minimum accuracy of 96 percent.

4. A qualified CART provider must be able to provide a basic display. Make sure any CART provider you hire has a stenotype machine with realtime cable, a notebook computer, CAT/realtime software and text-enlarging software. In addition to technology, a qualified CART provider should also be able to furnish the small stuff, like an extension cord, a surge protector with an indicator light, a 3-prong or 2-prong ground cord adapter, additional realtime cable and disks.

5. If you want projection capabilities beyond a laptop screen (i.e., multiple monitors, projection screen, L.E.D. message board), make sure the CART provider is willing to test for hardware and software compatibility, and make arrangements to do so.

6. Arrange all payment details in advance, and be sure any quote includes hourly fees, equipment fees and charges for each rough-edit disk. A qualified CART provider will be upfront about all charges.

7. Always ask for references. A qualified CART provider will always share this information and will be eager to put you in touch with others who can sing his or her praises!

Maureen McGuire, LegalVoice, Inc.
800-595-3174 ext. 105
732-562-9722 fax
mmcguire@legalvoice.com

Pete Wacht, National Court Reporters Association
703-556-6272 ext. 169
pwacht@ncrahq.org
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Access Days for People with Special Needs

Monday, December 3, 10 am-1 pm

The Denver Art Museum cordially invites you to a special viewing of

The Cos Cob Art Colony
Impressionists on the Connecticut Shore

America had Impressionists, too, and during the summers between 1889 and 1920 they gathered in the picturesque village of Cos Cob and challenged each other to defy convention. With flashing brushstrokes and vivid colors, artists including Childe Hassam, John Twachtman, and Alden J. Weir captured the light and feel of the harbor town. Nearly sixty of these captivating paintings will be on view.

Organized by the National Academy of Design, New York, NY

Sign language tours at 10:30 and 11:30 am

Descriptive tour at 11:00 am

Complimentary Starbucks refreshments

Docent Tours available--call for times

Wheelchairs and portable stools available

Group Leaders: Please call 720-865-5170 and we will be happy to assist you with special arrangements.

Special hours for you: We're closing our doors to the general public on Access Days, to make your visit more enjoyable. Alice Neel, a loan exhibition of extraordinary portraits, will also be on view. And, since the rest of the museum is closed on Mondays, we'll give you a free pass to come back and visit.

Admission is free. Donations, however, are always welcome.

Questions? Please call 720-865-5170. TTY 720-865-5003. We hope to see you soon!

Parking is easy: There are two accessible parking spaces on 14th Avenue Parkway in front of the museum and six more on 13th Avenue. There's also a parking lot at 13th Avenue and Acoma.

Access is simple: We have two entrances, both on 14th Avenue Parkway.
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Digest of the News

by Karen Keil

Hearing Device Offers Natural Sound, Rocky Mountain News, Sept. 13, 2001, p. 48A, details a new implantable hearing aid called the Direct System, by Soundtec, Inc. (www.soundtecinc.com), which has just been approved by the FDA. This system "includes a tiny, implantable magnet and a processor, similar in appearance to a small hearing aid." During the outpatient implant procedure under local anesthesia, taking 30 minutes, the tiny magnet incased in a titanium container is put on "part of the three tiny bones in the middle ear and the eardrum is closed." The external processor sends sound signals to the magnet as electromagnetic waves making it vibrate. The vibrations go to the small bones, giving clear and natural sounds. This will be an alternative to the FDA-approved Soundbridge. The cost is $4,000 to $5,000 per ear. It underwent a 103-person clinical trial. (The website showed two kinds of processors--an in-the-canal processor and a behind-the-ear processor.)

Satisfied Listeners, Rocky Mountain News Spotlight, Sept. 18, 2001, p. 3D, 4D, details the story of Allison Galoob, a deaf 13-year-old girl with a Nucleus cochlear implant. She attends St. Mary's Academy. Her younger sister Amy and her mother, Barbara, also have cochlear implants. The father, Bruce, and the brother, Austin, do not have cochlear implants. The father has chosen to wait, whereas the son is merely severely hard of hearing, and handles the phone calls for the family. Amy, 10, had her CI six years ago and rarely relies on lipreading. Allison and their mother were both implanted two years ago, and still are working through the sounds. Their CI surgeon said that out of all the things he does in his practice, the cochlear implant is the most rewarding. The article also covered the issues within the deaf community regarding the CI where some feel too much reliance on technology and not developing other skills to complement it is not good (e.g. develop skills for those times when CI is not available.)

They're Breaking The Sound Barrier, by Lou Ann Walker, Parade Magazine, May 13, 2001, p. 4-5, details many deaf people creating very productive lives in their careers as lawyers, stockbrokers, medical professionals, computer programmers, and so on, all with the use of technologies such as TTYs, cochlear implants, captioning, message pagers, e-mail and the Internet and other tools too many to list. The deaf people profiled said that technologies help them be plugged into the world both professionally and personally in a way never done before in history. The only downside of all this is that this is splintering deaf culture.
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Some Highlights on Baldi

* You can type in words for Baldi to say, or input your own voice into the computer for Baldi to repeat.
* You can change the skin color, eye color and expressions.
* You can make Baldi semi-transparent and show the tongue only.
* It takes 1/2 hour to create a basic custom program. The program can have captioning turned on or off.
* Baldi can be interactive, with it throwing in comments for feedback.
* There are many different faces to use.
* The software can be used for interactive reading books.
* When Professor Cole turned Baldi to the back, we could see the half-ping pong balls for eyes and the tongue with its back end trunucated.
* One of the demos was a set of four faces singing parts of a song.

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