On Saturday evening, Scotty, my sister-in-law Alicia, and Alicia’s fiancé Chris went to the Tempe Improv to see Iliza Shlesinger. We had seen her show on Comedy Central Presents and it just so happened that she was in town this weekend. Scotty, Iliza, me, Alicia, and Chris at the Read More
Author Archive
An Evening of Standup Comedy, and My Hearing
September 5th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
Posted in Hearing Loss |
Heading Back to School: Classroom Acoustics
September 3rd, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
It’s getting closer to fall and that means that kids and college students are heading back to their classrooms. At my workplace, which is a public library, that means newly silent rooms and a lull in patronage until the winter visitors from snowy states and Canada start coming in. In Read More
Posted in Advocacy, Audiology, Hearing Loss |
Buy “Do Fun Stuff” to Support Smith-Magenis Syndrome Research
September 1st, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
Pacing the Panic Room is one of my recent favorite blogs. It’s written by Ryan, whose stepson LB was diagnosed in 2009 with Smith-Magenis Syndrome. Never heard of it? Most people haven’t. It’s a developmental disorder that affects people all over their body. They may have mental Read More
Posted in Advocacy, Hearing Loss, Music |
CDC Creates Seasonal Flu Videos in ASL
August 31st, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
CDC Logo The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now has videos about seasonal flu available in American Sign Language. To access the videos, click here. The CDC partnered with the University of Rochester Prevention Research Center and the Deaf Wellness Center to create the Read More
Posted in ASL, Advocacy, Hearing Loss |
How Do You Handle Car Trouble?
August 30th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
Our new car. Recently my husband and I bought a new car, a 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt. We needed a second car since he has a long commute now and my little truck just isn’t that reliable. In fact, trouble with the truck has got me thinking. How do deaf people deal with car trouble? By Read More
Posted in Hearing Loss |
Sonic Alert Responds Awesomely to College Student’s Requests
August 27th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
I wanted to pass this story along of a company that makes accessible technology doing things right: I love my Sonic Alert alarm clock (the heart-shaped one). My audiologist sells them, and I’ve had one since I was in high school. These alarm clocks have an extra-loud alarm, and they also Read More
Posted in Hearing Loss |
Verizon Foundation Gives $55,000 to Massachusetts Nonprofits Aimed at Accessibility
August 25th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
Today, Verizon awarded $55,000 to Massachusetts nonprofits that are dedicated to helping people with disabilities. Of that, $35,000 went towards nonprofits that can help deaf people, with the rest going to the Lowell Association for the Blind and the National Braille Press. Those that will assist Read More
Posted in Advocacy, Hearing Loss |
NASCAR is Loud, But Just How Loud?
August 24th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
A NASCAR track is not one of those places you can go expecting some peace and quiet. While drivers and crew may wear ear protection (though they’re not required), fans of NASCAR often don’t, enjoying the sound of the cars and the crowd. Now a study by NIOSH – the National Read More
Posted in Hearing Loss |
Norway Develops Smart Ear Protection
August 23rd, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
Short Canyon near the Jostedalsbreen, Norway The petroleum industry is one that can be loud and hazardous. In Norway people in the industry report 600 cases of hearing loss each year. Now Statoil – Norway’s largest company – is taking technology used by the military and Read More
Posted in Hearing Loss |
MobileASL: A New Video Compression Scheme for ASL Over Cellphones
August 20th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
Texting in traffic How do you use your cellphone? Do you mostly call people or do you text? What if you had a third option: signing? I’m a big texter. I recently got an Android phone – an LG Ally – and all of a sudden I find myself using the phone’s messaging Read More
Posted in ASL, Hearing Loss |
1 in 5 U.S. Teens Has a Hearing Loss
August 18th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
Teens The big news in my Google Reader today seems to be the new findings, covered here in USA Today, and led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that one in five United States teenagers has hearing loss. This is an increase of 31% from the mid-1990s. According to the Read More
Posted in Audiology, Hearing Loss |
Guest Post: Why Hearing Aids are Starting to Sound Cool
August 16th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
The following guest post is from Stuart Spencer of The Hearing Company. All images in this post were provided by The Hearing Company. For information about guest posts on Hearing Sparks, please see here. The Hearing Company is a UK based hearing care retailer which has been dispensing Read More
Posted in Audiology, Hearing Loss |
Help the Ubuntu (Linux) Accessibility Team
August 12th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
I am a big proponent of open source software and I personally love using Linux at home. Since I began using it on my laptop about three or four years ago, I’ve found it to be more comfortable than Windows ever is for me – more customizable and more fluid for the way I Read More
Posted in Advocacy, Hearing Loss |
Microsoft Kinect’s Patent Says It Knows American Sign Language
August 11th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
Kinect Sensor According to Microsoft’s patent for their Kinect peripheral, Kinect can recognize American Sign Language. Microsoft Kinect is a system designed to work with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game system. Not yet released, the system uses a webcam-like attachment to the Read More
Posted in ASL, Hearing Loss |
Guest Post: Digital Hearing Aids Care Tips
August 10th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
The following guest post is from the team at hearing aids seller, HearingDirect.com. For information about guest posts on Hearing Sparks, please see here. If you are using digital hearing aids to help with your hearing impairment, you already know, they are not cheap. If you look after them and Read More
Posted in Audiology, Hearing Loss |
Of Triceratops and Rocko’s Modern Life, and Captions
August 7th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
Triceratops The other day we had a brand-new whiteboard installed at work. It’s just an ordinary whiteboard for writing notes and information on, with half of it a corkboard to post items. Naturally, the same day it was put up it became covered in a long random conversation about Read More
Posted in Hearing Loss |
6 Behaviors to Increase Clarity on the Telephone
August 6th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
1896 Telephone Growing up, I rarely ever used the telephone beyond calling family members. I was too intimidated by it. Even in high school, the prospect of calling a friend and not being able to hear them, or getting someone else on the line and not being able to get in touch with the Read More
Posted in Hearing Loss |
Guest Post: Surround Sound – Not Just for Movie Theaters
August 5th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
The following guest post is from Laura, a hearing aid center employee. For information about guest posts on Hearing Sparks, please see here. As you can see from Hearing Sparks, the landscape of hearing technology is constantly expanding and offering better hearing experiences. Depending on your Read More
Posted in Audiology, Hearing Loss |
Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dawson Signs from Space
August 4th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dawson says, “One thing I have learned is that deaf people can do anything. The only thing they can’t do is hear. Maybe one day you can fly into space and live on the ISS.” ISS 3 What’s the ISS? And why is Tracy Caldwell Dawson talking Read More
Posted in ASL, Advocacy, Hearing Loss |
Seeing Voices, by Oliver Sacks
August 3rd, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
This review was originally published on my Goodreads profile here (hence the references to this blog). I decided to publish it here as an overview of what I think of the book. Further blog posts on certain subjects in the book are forthcoming. Seeing Voices was Read More
Posted in ASL, Hearing Loss |
NPR Pioneers Captioned Radio
August 2nd, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
Girl listening to radio On Election Night 2008, NPR Labs demonstrated their captioned radio technology in Boston, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Denver, and Phoenix. Now they are demonstrating a unique dual-view screen in the car, which allows passengers to view captioned radio while the Read More
Posted in Hearing Loss |
New York City Installs Hearing Loops on its Subways
July 30th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
Empty subway in NYC I just read on the blog Eh? What? Huh? that New York City is installing hearing loops on its subways. Subway riders who have a telecoil or T-switch on their hearing aids will be able to switch to it and hear announcements directly in their hearing aids. Here’s a Read More
Posted in Audiology, Hearing Loss |
Give the Department of Justice Your Opinion on Movie Captioning
July 29th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
The United States Department of Justice is considering revising “title III regulations to require movie theater owners and operators to show movies with closed captions and video description in their theaters at least fifty percent of the time,” and they would like your Read More
Posted in Advocacy, Hearing Loss |
President Signs an Executive Order to Hire 100,000 People with Disabilities Over 5 Years
July 28th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
(You’d think it was something like “ADA Week” around here…) On July 26, the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, President Obama signed an Executive Order to increase the federal employment of people with disabilities. The order calls Read More
Posted in Hearing Loss |
The House of Representatives Passes H.R. 3101
July 27th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
In a wonderful way to mark the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, yesterday the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3101, moving it on to the Senate. The bill passed 348-23. Representative James Langevin (D-Rhode Island) presided over the debates. Langevin Read More
Posted in Advocacy, Hearing Loss |
The Americans with Disabilties Act Celebrates its 20th Anniversary
July 26th, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
President Bush’s speech cards Today is the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law on this day in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush. In the same way as the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act gives protections to Read More
Posted in Advocacy, Hearing Loss |
New “Downloads” Page
July 23rd, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
I’ve added a new page to my blog called Downloads. Here you will find useful downloadable resources. Right now there’s only one – my NATO Phonetic Alphabet PDF – but I’ll be adding more as I find them/create them. If you have any suggestions, let me know! Read More
Posted in Hearing Loss |
29% of Americans Believe their Social Life Would Suffer with Hearing Loss
July 23rd, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
Check out this interesting survey. In this survey conducted by HearUSA, Americans were asked, If you had a significant hearing loss, which do you think would suffer the most? 29% of Americans thought that their social life or relationship with friends would suffer. I made a pie chart to Read More
Posted in Audiology, Hearing Loss |
Autism Has a Unique Vocal Signature, and LENA Can Find It
July 22nd, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
What if you could reliably detect autism, developmental delays, or speech delays just by listening to a child’s babble? LENA can do it. “GrasGrün“ LENA, which stands for Language ENvironment Analysis, is entirely automated software developed by researchers at the Read More
Posted in Hearing Loss |
A Screaming Child Onboard = Hearing Loss and Lawsuit?
July 21st, 2010 by Hearing Sparks
Air cabin According to a TIME article yesterday, a 67-year-old woman sued Qantas when a child on board her flight leaned over and screamed in her ear. According to the article, Jean Barnard claims “the toddler’s scream made her ear bleed and caused permanent hearing loss, Read More
