September 1-5, 2010: ALDAcon 2010 (Colorado Springs, CO)
http://www.alda.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=117&Itemid=57
September 11, 2010: Deafhood Workshop (Richmond)
Please go to our Deafhoodva website which is www.deafhoodva.org or go to Facebook under “Deafhoodva” to reserve a seat or comfirm that u will attend or not. Reason is we need head count to see how much food we need to get to provide u all for lunch on that day (Sept 11, 2010).
Flyer (JPG):
http://www.deafhh.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/091110Deafhood-Workshop-Richmond.jpg
3D imaging could help improve hearing aids
If you’re one of the 17 percent of American adults who reportedly suffer from some type of hearing loss, listen up: hearing aids–and earphones–may be about to enter a new generation of superior fit and functionality, thanks to molds based on a 3D imaging technique instead of plaster.
Time was, getting fitted for a hearing aid took an hour in a chair with an audiologist, who would fill a patient’s ear canals with a silicone substance that hardened into a mold from which the aid would be constructed. The molds are only so detailed, which means the fits are only so tight.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have taken a new approach with a stretchy, balloon-like membrane inserted into the ear canal and then inflated to take on the canal’s detailed shape. They then fill that membrane with a fluorescent dye that a tiny fiber-optic camera inside the balloon can scan in a matter of seconds.
Because the camera captures 3D images so fast, it is also able to measure how the contours of the ear canal change with pressure, or with motion such as chewing and talking, measurements that could even further improve the fit of hearing aids, as well as earphones used with MP3 players and earplugs for, say, military personnel.
“A lot of people with hearing aids are likely walking around with hearing aids that don’t fit, because they don’t know what they’re supposed to feel like,” says Douglas Hart, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT who patented the system in January and has founded a company to bring it to market.
The team is now building a handheld version of the device that they plan to study, comparing the fit of hearing aids built with the new scanner to that of traditional aids.
- Written by Elizabeth Armstrong Moore, cnet news, 5/25/10, http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20005895-247.html and thanks to NVRC for sharing this article.
DC Police Install Software for the Deaf Community
Filed under: ADA Accessibility and Advocacy, Sign Language Devices
Police in the District of Columbia are seeking to improve communications with the city’s large deaf and hard of hearing population through new software in police cruisers — a move believed to be among the first nationwide.
The Metropolitan Police Department installed the software in 15 police cars this week under a pilot program. It provides a video link that allows people to communicate with police through American Sign Language interpreters.
Police spokesman Officer Eric Frost said the department already has a special unit for deaf and hard of hearing residents and officers who translate sign language. But the software allows officers to gather information from the scene more rapidly, he said.
“We have a very large deaf and hard of hearing community in this city,” Frost said. “It’s allowing us to serve that community with much more efficacy and efficiency.”
The region is home to Gallaudet University, the nation’s premier university for deaf and hard of hearing students, and thousands of federal government workers who are deaf.
Fred Weiner, Gallaudet’s executive director of program development, said language and cultural variables can cause communication problems and misunderstandings, which sometimes lead to unfortunate results or people’s rights being violated. Weiner, who is deaf, said D.C. police are the first to adopt the software.
“While it does not resolve all the communication issues deaf and hard of hearing people encounter when interacting with law enforcement officials, it is a very important step in the right direction,” he said in an e-mail.
Police said three of the cruisers are in the district where Gallaudet is located. The software also is installed at each of the department’s seven police stations and three substations.
The Rocklin, Calif.-based Purple Communications Inc. did not charge police for installing the software, according to Paul Singleton, director of strategic accounts. Singleton said D.C. police are the first in the nation to use the service in their vehicles.
The software connects an officer’s laptop webcam to one of the company’s 24-hour ASL interpreters, who then provide police with the translation. The service also allows deaf people to make phone calls from the scene.
Singleton, who lives in Bethesda, Md., said he has hereditary deafness and is fourth-generation deaf. There have been emergencies in which he’s had trouble calling police or had problems communicating with authorities, he said. But new technology is alleviating those obstacles, he said.
“All those barriers have totally been removed and my options as a deaf person are unbelievable compared to my grandfather,” he said while communicating via his laptop to an interpreter.
Capt. Edward Delgado, head of the D.C. police special liaison unit, said the software has already proven successful since it was installed. Delgado said it helped facilitate the conversation between an officer responding to a deaf person involved in a traffic accident.
About a month ago, he said officials also installed separate hardware programs in each police station that allow deaf and hard of hearing residents to speak with police and other D.C. government agencies.
Purple, Inc’s Press Release: http://www.purple.us/Pages/ReadPressRelease.php?id=61.
A similar article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2010/06/18/state/n131855D50.DTL#ixzz0riLwmFwg.
- Written by Nafeesa Syeed, Associate Press Writer, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2010/06/18/state/n131855D50.DTL and thanks to Brenda Estes of Endependence Center.
Disability not a deterrent for local woman as she pursues showing horses
When Lisa Osborne sits atop her 19-year-old horse, Sassy, she is a commanding presence. She rides with an air of confidence in the show ring at Clarksville 79 Riding Club, confidence that belies her inexperience.
“She’s going to go far. She’s doing great,” says her coach, Trina Phipps. “She wants to go to state this year, in her first year showing. That’s a lot in a few months, but you can’t stop her. She’s got a lot of energy and a lot of passion. I wish I had more students like her.”
Another thing that makes her unlike any student Phipps has had before: Osborne is deaf. She always longed to show horses, and finally gave in to that longing this spring. Because she can’t hear, she has to go to unusual lengths to understand instructions given in the show ring.
“When they make an announcement, I can hear the noise, but not the words,” Osborne said.
She and Phipps devised an iPhone to iPhone communication system, allowing Phipps to send Osborne instructions while in the ring. It’s not that big of a deal, Osborne said, and it frustrates her that some of her friends allow their disabilities to be deal breakers.
“It just takes time and patience to figure out what to do. I have deaf friends who say, ‘I can’t do this; I can’t do that.’ It makes me mad!” Osborne says. “I’ve always dreamed of being in a horse show. I’m 38 years old, and I’m finally in a horse show.”
From the looks of it, Osborne isn’t just in a horse show. She’s quickly rising to the top, placing in everything she enters.
“It’s really neat,” Osborne says. “I really like it.”
At her last show, she took first place on Sassy and third place on Cheyenne, a yearling filly that is as new to horse shows as Osborne is. Her next big show is the 2010 Ann Dean Open Money Show, set for 4 p.m. July 31 at Clarksville 79 Riding Club. Osborne says her mother, Kay Freeman, her husband, Scott Osborne and the whole club have been endlessly encouraging of her entry into the world of showing horses.
“It tickles me they’re willing to take their time to help me,” Osborne says.
But it’s Phipps who gives Osborne the most attention.
“She really takes all of her time and helps me get ready for the show,” Osborne says about her coach.
Phipps says she wishes she had more students with Osborne’s drive and determination.
“It’s mostly her. She does all the work herself,” Phipps says. “She puts up all her own fencing
. I went over there the other night and she was putting paneling in her horse trailer. She’s not going to wait for somebody to do it for her.”
Freeman says she is grateful for the individual attention Phipps offers her daughter.
“Where Trina has come in so much is teaching Lisa how to show Cheyenne, a filly she has in halter training,” Freeman says.
Taking on a yearling is “a big chore,” Phipps says, but her many years of experience dealing with horses makes it manageable.
“Horses’ body language is close to identical to a person’s,” Phipps says. “You can tell when they’re mad, you can tell when they’re hurt, you can tell when they’re irritated. Most of it is in their ears and their tail.”
And helping Osborne along is well worth the challenge of training a young horse.
“I just absolutely love working with her,” Phipps says. “She’s an awesome woman. For her and the disability she has, she doesn’t care. She’s going to do what she wants to do.”
- Written by Stacy Leiser of The Leaf Chronicle, June 23, 2010, http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20100623/LIFESTYLE/6230306/Charging-into-show-ring.
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