by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. The Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network (DHHCAN) has just released their new Consumer Action Guide on Air Travel. This guide is based upon the recent update of the Air Carrier Access Act regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation in May 2009, during one of the most […]
Coping Strategies
Helping Your Child Deal with the Grief of Hearing Loss
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. The father of a hard of hearing child asked: Does your kid (or did you, as a kid) ever get depressed about hearing loss? Our eleven year old son has worn hearing aids since age three. When he started, we successfully made it a happy condition, as he ran to show […]
Computers Now Better at Speechreading (Lip-reading) than Humans
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. A new study by the University of East Anglia has revealed the surprising results that computers are now better at lip-reading (speechreading) than humans are. In one demonstration. the computers recognized 80% of the words presented, whereas the 19 human speechreaders only recognized 32% of the words. (1) That […]
Fire Safety for People with Hearing Loss
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. In the USA in 2006, there were 412,500 home fires that killed 2,580 people and injured another 12,925 people. That’s scary! On the average, these same fires killed one person with hearing loss every 15 hours, and injured a person with hearing loss every 3 hours. That’s really scary if you […]
Easy Way to Keep Stereo and Mono Jacks Straight
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. A lady wrote: I know a stereo plug has two rings, and a mono plug only one. That is easy to see, but, how do you know whether the device you are plugging into has a stereo or mono jack? One manufacturer of assistive devices says in their instructions, “do not […]
Classroom Coping Strategies for Hard of Hearing Teachers
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. A new teacher with a profound hearing loss wrote: I am a hearing impaired student teacher. I have a profound hearing loss with a speech recognition of 12 percent. I was wondering if you could assist me with some strategies for teaching normal hearing students in a Middle School environment. I […]