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- Deaf = disability? The cultural conundrum
- Deaf Identity & Deaf Community - Robert Adam
- Move over strobe alarms … its the smell-alarm!
- Why the big divide? Why many in the Deaf community react strongly against the CI
- Hearing aids “more often than not insufficient”
- Up to 85% of Indigenous kids in NT experience hearing loss
- The Beauty and Beast that is the Internet
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Hearing aids “more often than not insufficient”
Yesterday there was an despairing post on AllDeaf about a “sloping loss” (where the hearing loss was high frequency hearing loss) and that the audiologist had suggested hearing aids may not be the answer.
For many people, when they find out they have a hearing loss the first thing they look for is a quick medical fix - a consequence of our “everyone has to be perfect, trust the experts they know best, there is an answer for everything” medical model of illness, disease and disability. An unfortunate side-effect of being able to offer an answer for some things is that we expect an answer for everything.
However, as the title suggests from Neil Bauman’s latest post, Hearing Aids Are Not the Whole Answer, So Why Do We Act as if They Are?
Neil mentions five areas that need to be addressed by audiologist with their clients in order to achieve the best outcomes:
- Working through the grieving process with regards to the hearing loss so that the client is psychologically and emotionally adjusted to the reality of being hard of hearing. He notes that this first step is essential if the following four areas are to result in the best possible outcome for the client.
- Get properly adjusted hearing aids if hearing aids will help - and he suggests 99.9% of people will be helped with hearing aids.
- Get the appropriate assistive listening devices that are necessary to help in situations where hearing aids are not adequate. Directional microphones, hearing loops and FM systems can all help to block out background noise and help tune in to the desired source when the environment is noisy.
- Learn to lipread (also known as speech reading), so that sound is augmented by visual cues to help you “hear” what is being said.
- Learn which coping strategies work for you to help you hear and understand people. Adjustments such as getting close to the speaker, cutting out competing background noise, having light on the speaker’s face but not behind them, choosing round tables rather than square ones, will all help you to keep up with conversation.
It is important that both experts and people with hearing loss are explicit in their understanding that technology is just one of the many resources we have at our disposal, but that in the end (for the moment at least) there is no “cure” for deafness.
Popularity: 53% [?]
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Up to 85% of Indigenous kids in NT experience hearing loss
This story about “Nearly all Indigenous kids in NT have hearing problems” at the ABC caught my eye today…
In Australia, the rate of permanent hearing loss is around 20%, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. But in Aboriginal communities particularly, and for all Aboriginal peoples in Australia generally the rate is much higher. “The prevalence of ear/hearing problems, including total/partial hearing loss and otitis media (middle ear infection), was three times higher among Indigenous than non-Indigenous children.” (ABS “Health of Children in Australia: A Snapshot, 2004-05″)
Many factors contribute to poor health outcomes. In biological terms, the greatest risk factor for the early onset and persistence of otitis media is infection in the upper part of the throat behind the nose by multiple bacterial species and subtypes.
In Aboriginal communities with overcrowded households, infants are frequently exposed to siblings whose carry almost 100% of the major otitis media-causing bacteria.
In non-Aboriginal children, the body usually deals with pathogens of a low-dose infection, which, in turn, controls inflammation and limits tissue damage.
In contrast, early exposure of very young Aboriginal infants to large or frequent exposures to so many different bacteria provides constant stimulation of the immune system to inflamme the passageways, which damages the tissue but doesn’t destroy the bacteria. This begins a vicious cycle that may persist throughout childhood: early exposure, persistent bacterial infection, and chronic ear nose and throat disease. And in turn, such infants themselves become chronic carriers of the bacteria and go on to infect other, younger infants. This cycle is made worse by overcrowded and poor living conditions, lack of appropriate washing facilities, and limited access to appropriate healthcare services.
It is also made worse by the misunderstanding of western ways. It was a common occurrence in 2000 at least, for the Aboriginal children to swim in the sewage pond when the creek dried up. Had the government not intervened in the community there would not have a sewage pond… however, neither would there have been houses.
The problem is that hearing loss has very widespread impact. The “Bringing them Home” report into the Stolen Generations of Aboriginals stated,
Hearing loss is endemic in Indigenous children and linked to poverty. The incidence varies between areas, but an estimated minimum of 20% of Indigenous pupils in urban areas are affected by marked hearing loss resulting from otitis media. `Problems with hearing are one of the major causes of low performance in language skills among Aboriginal children and can also be related to behavioural issues’ (Groome and Hamilton 1995 page 25). Numerous reports, including those of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, have drawn attention to the connections between hearing loss, behavioural problems and intervention by juvenile justice or welfare agencies (National Report 1991 Volume 2 pages 364-8, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs 1994 pages 325-31).
What is even worse is, as the Aboriginal Law Bulletin states,
Those affected by hearing loss are themselves often not aware of their disability, usually ascribing their communicative difficulties to not speaking English properly, cultural differences or others’ antagonism to them personally or Aborigines generally.
How horrendous is that?
And yet, it would seem that hearing loss may have been endemic in the Aboriginal peoples for some time. In an examination of the languages of Indigenous Australians, “it appears that Aboriginal languages are rich in sounds whose differentiation exploits precisely that area of hearing ability which is most likely to remain intact in sufferers of chronic middle ear infection…[that is] that the phonetics and phonology of a language have been shaped by the hearing status of the speakers” (Andrew Butcher, Flinders University: pdf document)
To rephrase - Indigenous Australian languages mostly use sounds in the hearing range that people who have otitis media can still hear - much, much moreso than any other group of languages in the world.
So we have a group of people who are particularly susceptible to ear, nose and throat infections, living in environments that make cross contamination almost inevitable, with little or no access to surgical intervention, amplification, speech therapy, or special education, being educated in Western style schools where “education is heavily dependent upon verbal language” (Massie, et al., 2004).
Before colonisation and Western interference, traditional indigenous learning happened outside (where is there is no sound echo), in one to one conversations (face-to-face, side by side), in the student’s first language (often accompanied by indigenous sign languages).
‘These communication difficulties have been a major contributor to the development of serious social and psychological problems.’ (Howard, 1993)
You think?
Popularity: 61% [?]
The Beauty and Beast that is the Internet
Can you remember life B.C.? Before Computers? What about before the internet? What did we do before we sat in front of computers all day, able to communicate as quickly with the other side of the world as we can the other side of the city?
For deaf people, by which I mean culturally Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing, hearing impaired - any person with any amount of hearing loss - the internet has been both a blessing and a curse.
It has created the opportunities for finding others who have similar interests, and assisted those with good (or at least ok) written language skills to communicate with groups that before may have been too difficult to find, and even more difficult to understand. Young deaf people use the instant messaging systems as much as any hearing youth use the telephone.
However, for those who don’t feel comfortable with written language, the internet has often resulted in fewer opportunities to meet face to face. In the past Deaf clubs were frequented so that the Deaf could catch up with each other after a week of living in the hearing world. Now both hearing and deaf use text messaging and emails so often that a perception of isolation has reduced. Attendance at weekly Deaf clubs is often declining, and at the same time ageing, as younger people accept the internet revolution more readily.
Now that YouTube and cheap web-cams have given the signing community an easy method of communicating in sign language the isolation is further reduced - but then our “friends” can be on the other side of the world, and a bit difficult to have a coffee with.
Another challenge is now finding these communities of like minded people. Previously they were so few, now they are so many… the internet is like a giant library of resources that no one has bothered to properly catagorise.
I guess that is why we wanted to establish DeafHub. We are trying to get the resources that are available on the internet into some sort of order - to review what is out there, and give the best, biggest, widest range of information so that the beast is tamed, and the communities that are fragmenting geographically can be found again in the “shared interest” arena.
Is there something you are searching for, and just can’t find? Why not drop us a line, and let’s see if we can help you find it… and at the same time, help others to find it too.
Popularity: 38% [?]
