Accessible Techcomm

A-Z to Deafblindness provides information and resources for the deafblind.
Action on Hearing Loss – formerly the Royal National Institute of the Deaf (RNID) [UK]
Alexander Graham Bell Financial Aid Programs Financial aid programs are available for families at every stage of raising their hearing-disabled child.
- Financial Aid Programs
- AG Bell College Scholarships
- Financial Assistance for Hearing Technology
- Financial Aid Resources at Other Organizations
ALS Pah! an e-zine for American Sign Language students and teachers
American Auditory Society
American Sign Language Fingerspelling dictionary, converters, quiz
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
American Tinnitus Association (ATA) ATA is a global leader in the effort to find a cure for tinnitus. We bring together patients, researchers, healthcare professionals, industry partners and lawmakers to develop tinnitus management tools and fund vital tinnitus research.
ALS Online Lessons
Apple® Accessibility Features Vision built into all Macintosh computers provides adjustable keyboard, an ergonomic mouse, CloseView screen magnification software, Easy Access system software (StickyKeys, SlowKeys, MouseKeys), electronic documentation, key-repeat disable, text-to-speech synthesis and voice recognition (PlainTalk), sticky mouse, and visual alert cues. The VoiceOver spoken English interface for Mac OS X is a fully integrated, built-in screen reader technology providing access to the Macintosh through speech, audible cues, and keyboard navigation.
Assistech Special Needs products for special needs such as deaf and hard of hearing, blind and low vision, medical health, mobility and dexterity, and more
Auditory Disabilities from WebAIM describes the types of auditory disabilities.
Canadian Hearing Society [Ontario, Canada]
CaptionSync from Automatic Sync Technologies. Funded in part by an SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant, AST pioneered the most cost-efficient, high quality, automatic captioning service available today. CaptionSync delivers all time-coded captioning file formats to you in minutes all from one, single submission. [UK]
Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) provides all persons who are deaf or hard of hearing awareness of and equal access to communication and learning through the use of free captioned educational media and supportive collateral materials
Deaf Blogs Updated
- Best of Deaf Blogs and Vlogs: DeafRead
- The Limping Chicken, The world’s most popular deaf blog! Laying eggs since 2012 [UK] New
13 Cool New Gadgets to Help With Hearing
Deafness in Disguise: Concealed Hearing Devices of the 19th and 20th Centuries
Hearing aids: How to choose the right one from the Mayo Clinic New
What are digital hearing aids? from the ReSound New
Types of Hearing Aids from the FDA New
Gallaudet University: Types of Financial Aid This is a short listing of financial resources that you can use to seek out funding for your Gallaudet education. Gallaudet University is the world leader in liberal education and career development for deaf and hard of hearing students. The University enjoys an international reputation for its outstanding programs and for the quality of the research it conducts on the history, language, culture, and other topics related to deaf people. Updated
Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) formerly known as Self Help for Hard of Hearing (SHHH) People, Inc.
Maryland Relay a telecommunications service helping people who are deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind or speech disabled to easily communicate through TTY (text telephone) with anyone using a standard phone
Media Access Group at WGBHdevelops and distributes captioning, video description, and MoPix means of access to movies and television for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing. WGBH started addressing access barrier challenges back in the seventies, when they invented closed captioning; that was just the beginning. Updated
"We continue to pioneer new solutions to ensure that everyone can benefit from innovations in media. To make media more accessible, we’re setting captioning standards on every new device and technology that comes along and have developed free software to let anyone caption anything. We’ve given people with visual impairments the chance to experience an eclipse in real time through descriptive narration (another WGBH invention), enjoy TV via audio descriptions, and access the content that informs our everyday lives."
National Captioning Institute
National Center on Accessible Educational Materials (NCAEM) For students with sensory, physical, cognitive, or learning differences and their teachers, accessible instructional materials (AIM) may open doors to teaching and learning that ordinary print-based materials have closed. Accessible instructional materials or AIM are specialized formats of curricular content that can be used by and with students who are unable to read or use standard print materials. Specialized formats include braille, audio, large print, and digital text. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) includes a requirement that schools provide AIM in a timely manner to K–12 students who need them for participation and achievement.
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), Voice, Speech, Language
Nicaraguan Sign Language Projects, Inc.
Oticon hearing care solutions
List of Languages Updated
Sign Language Dictionary Online
Sign Languages of the World, Search by Country from Gallaudet University Library
SignWriting
Tinnitus (ringing in the ear)
Surgical implants and nonsurgical solutions: Cochlear Implant (CI), Electric Acoustic Stimulation (EAS), Bone Conduction Implant (BONEBRIDGE), and Bone Conduction System (ADHEAR) New

Hearing accessibility topics include prelingual and postlingual deafness for profound deafness and hard-of-hearing. Information is also provided for presbyacousis (old-age hearing loss).

Reference Books and Resources

There are several excellent books related to hearing. See the suggested reading list for general information and detailed reference books for your library.

Hearing Loss Resources

Find more resources using the Areas of Focus Hearing category search.

Recent and Relevant

Regenerated hair cells inside the cochlear of the ear can restore hearing

January 9, 2013, By Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (ScienceDaily) – Researchers have demonstrated for the first time that hair cells can be regenerated in an adult mammalian ear by using a drug to stimulate resident cells to become new hair cells, resulting in partial recovery of hearing in mouse ears damaged by noise trauma. This finding holds great potential for future therapeutic application that may someday reverse deafness in humans. More…

Sign Language Trivia

Alas, learning one sign language does not mean you are understood all over the world. There are "177 identified sign languages, dialects, and other sign systems" according to Gallaudet University's Sign Languages of the World. In spoken language, Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes can make themselves understood among themselves. Finnish is totally different, and only related to Magyar-Hungary! There happens to be a Scandinavian Pidgin Sign Language that covers all four countries. Thus, a Deaf Dane has a better chance of communicating with a Deaf Finn than a hearing Dane and a hearing Finn!

Closed Captioning definition.

Announcements

New Book Announcements

Title: Mental Health Care Of Deaf People: A Culturally Affirmative Approach (cloth with CD)
Subtitle: A Culturally Affirmative Approach
Author/Editor: Neil S. Glickman (editor) and Sanjay Gulati (editor)
Primary Subject: Clinical Theory & Practice
Secondary Subject: Therapy
ISBN: 9780805844696
Year: 2003. Published by Taylor & Francis Group.

Book review of Signs of Resistance: American Deaf Cultural History, 1900 to 1942, by Susan Burch, March 2003.

Ken Glickman, a.k.a. "Prof. Glick," proudly announces a new book, Deaf Proverbs. More information can be found at https://deafology.com You are invited to join Ken's mailing list where you will be kept informed of his new book and other publications as well as his DEAFology comedy shows on a timely basis. It's real easy to join (just do nothing and you are still on this mailing list), and it's free!
E-mail:

TTY: 301-434-4040
Fax: 301-434-6626

In the Press

• The Silence Machine
The Electronic Controlled Acoustic Shadow System (ECASS), called the silence machine by its creator Selwyn Wright, an engineer at the University of Huddersfield in Yorkshire, UK, is the first device capable of blocking out a specified noise while leaving everything else audible. The silence machine works by sending out sound waves that are the opposite of those being generated by the offending noise source.

New Scientist has more information in their article, "Silence machine zaps unwanted noise." by Marina Murphy, 28 March 2002, at https://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2094.

• "Deafened to Their Demands: An Ethnographic Study of Accommodation," by Michael Salvo, won one of the annual Best Webtext Awards from Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy. See the article map at http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/7.1/binder2.html?coverweb/salvo/map.htm. See also https://heathersprelimnotes.wordpress.com/2016/05/20/salvo-deafened-to-their-demands-an-ethnographic-study-of-accommodation/ for a review of the article by Heather LeStrange in her blog "Heather's Prelim Notes".

• An article published by Worldwide Employee Communications, Intel Corporation describes the innovations used at Intel's Aloha Campus in Oregon to enable training for a hearing impaired employee. A copy of the article is posted here with permission: "Sign Language Services Unlock Technician's Learning Potential". (28 K .pdf)

Tag: sign languages

Hearing Loss Resources