NEWS & VIEWS
March-April 2020

212-769-HEAR


President's Message
Hello dear chapter members.
 
I hope you are all well in body and mind at this very difficult time.
Our lives have changed dramatically and suddenly, and for people with hearing loss one aspect of this change is especially difficult.

Social isolation. For years we have been told that social isolation is bad for us, that we need our friends and family and support groups to keep our hearing and our brains healthy.

That’s why we gather together at HLAA meetings instead of just reading books and blogs about how to live better with hearing loss. That’s why we advocate for accessible solutions that allow us to enjoy public performances and civic meetings. That’s why we ask our houses of worship to install hearing loops, so that we can join with others in the calming rituals of spiritual life. As I write this we are on the eve of major holidays for many. Passover began on Wednesday, April 8. Easter was on April 12. Ramadan will be later this month. For those who don’t follow an organized religion, spring is the time we want to be outdoors, sharing the beauty of cherry trees and tulips and flowering quince.

Zoom isn’t quite the same experience. But it’s what we have. Some of us are adept enough at social media to have learned how to join Zoom meetings— and how to caption them. Others have weekly family dinners via Zoom. Some of you may have listened in this past Saturday on HLAA's virtual meeting with Kevin Franck, Director of Audiology at Mass Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School and Board Treasurer of HLAA. He presented on  An Audiologist’s Perspective on Caring for your Hearing Health During COVID.  To learn more about Zoom, click here and here.

If you can’t hear well on the telephone, now is the time to sign up for a captioning service. WebCapTel and CaptionCall have been valiantly trying to keep up with demand. InnoCaption+ continues to work for smartphone users. 
 
And don’t forget good old cards and letters!
 
Next month, our chapter will see a change in leadership. Having served more than my allotted two terms, it’s time for me to move on. Jon Taylor, whom many of you know, takes my place on May 19 at our annual meeting. Jon joined the board two years ago and has been serving as vice president for the past year. When he was our Walk4Hearing Chapter team chair this year and last, we raised record amounts for HLAA and for the chapter. Jon was a musician by profession (trombone). After he retired, he went back to school and got a PhD in psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center. We are very lucky to have him.

I’m not going far, since I will be succeeding Jon as vice president. Our dedicated board members will either continue their terms or begin new ones. We hope to expand the board to include new members, but circumstances have kept us from getting very far with that plan.
 
Members can always get in touch with the chapter by emailing me at [email protected] . I will answer those emails and forward them to the appropriate people.
 
Stay in touch. Stay inside. Stay well.
 
Please note that the May 5th HLAA-NYC Chapter meeting is cancelled. See you in September. Fingers crossed. 

Katherine Bouton, President, HLAA-NYC
Article on the Benefits of Video Captions
by Jon Taylor
In 2015, Morton Ann Gernsbacher, a professor at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, published an article in the journal Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences entitled, “Video Captions Benefit Everyone.” In it, she reviewed more than one hundred studies on the benefits of video captioning and found that captioning “improves comprehension of, attention to, and memory for the video” for people of all ages and hearing ability.
 
Those of us with hearing loss have long understood the benefits of captioning. What may come as a surprise to people without hearing loss is that captions can help them too. For example, Gernsbacher cited a 1983 study in which children with and without hearing loss were randomly assigned to watch a video in different conditions — with audio only, captions only, or both. On a test of comprehension of the video, the children with normal hearing outperformed those with hearing loss in all conditions. But the most interesting result is that the children without hearing loss demonstrated better comprehension after seeing the video with captions than with audio, and still better with both.

Similar results were reported in a study of second and third graders learning to read, and among second-language learners. With schools closed due to the coronavirus, education at all levels is primarily online with videos and lectures. This might be an opportune time for educators to consider adding captions to these presentations.
 
The benefits of captions are not limited to children. Adults also benefit from captioned videos. Whether viewing commercials or college lectures, adults with and without hearing loss were better able to remember content when videos were captioned.
 
Opponents of open captioning in venues such as movie theaters have claimed that only a small number of people benefit from open captions, while the large majority object to their presence. For those of us who advocate for open captioning, these empirical results provide important evidence to the contrary.

To read Dr. Gernsbacher's entire article, click here .
Settlement Highlights Accessibility
Gap for Hearing Impaired New Yorkers
As noted in an article in the Queens Daily Eagle, an Astoria resident with low vision and severe hearing loss has won a settlement with a professional licensing agency over the organization’s failure to provide speech to text service at past events. 

Marc Safman, a professional financial fraud specialist accredited by the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists, or ACAMS, contacted the New York City Commission of Human Rights after certain ACAMS events did not offer Communication Access Real-time Translation, also known as CART. 

CART provides a transcription of conversations on a screen for people with low vision and hearing impairments.

The city filed a notice of probable cause against the licensing body and the parties reached a settlement on March 11. ACAMS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jerry Bergman, a member of the Hearing Loss Association of America, said the case highlights obstacles faced by people with hearing and vision impairments in work settings, despite laws intended to prevent barriers.

“Marc’s case is an example of one of the many difficulties working professionals face in pursuit of their careers,” Bergman said. “Although the Americans with Disabilities Act over the past 30 years has promised people with hearing loss an equal playing field, the reality is that such people earn far lower wages on average and have far higher rates of unemployment compared with the general population.”
MARCH 3rd CHAPTER MEETING RECAP
How Hearing Loss Relates to
Depression and Dementia
The speakers, otolaryngologist and neurotologist Ana Kim and psychiatrist Bret Rutherford, are collaborating on a long‑term study about the effects of age-related hearing loss on cognitive function and depression.
Dr. Kim, the director of the cochlear implant program at Columbia Medical College, noted “We’ve come a long way in terms of hearing aids from the days of the trumpet to the days when the first digital hearing aids were developed in 1982." She then added, “If hearing aids are so good why isn't everybody wearing them?”
 
Among the reasons people shun hearing aids, according to Dr. Kim, are the high cost, stigma, occlusion, lack of clarity, and reverberation. “For me as a clinician, it's frustrating when I see a patient who should do well with a cochlear implant or a hearing aid, but doesn’t,” said Dr. Kim. “In 1800 Sir Francis Galton theorized a link between cognition and hearing loss. It took a century before cognitive studies proved there was a link. Other studies show that if you have prolonged hearing loss, centers of your brain that are responsible for hearing shrink. That’s what Dr. Rutherford and I are studying.”
Dr. Rutherford’s talk centered on depression, particularly in older people. He noted, “Depression comprises many symptoms, from feeling predominantly blue, loss of enjoyment, sleeping trouble, changes in appetite, eating too much or too little, losing energy, and having trouble concentrating. In serious cases, even having thoughts of suicide. About 25 percent of individuals over 60 have what we call clinically significant depressive symptoms. Among the many reasons we care about depression is that it’s one of the foremost modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia.”
 
Dr. Rutherford continued, “As hearing loss worsens from mild to moderate to severe, the risk for cognitive decline and dementia rises. People with severe hearing loss are over five times more likely to get a diagnosis of dementia than people without hearing loss. So it's an urgent issue."
 
Dr. Kim and Dr. Rutherford are studying why there are age-related and hearing-related reasons people get depressed and how to treat that. In Dr. Rutherford’s words, “We know that hearing, depression, and mobility problems are the three major risk factors for cognitive decline, dementia, and disability. So we thought if hearing loss is getting somebody depressed, giving them hearing aids might alleviate the depression."
 
The study is ongoing. “Basically,” Dr. Rutherford said, “hearing treatment looks like it's doing a lot more for people's depressive symptoms than just antidepressants alone. We’re going to keep studying the relationship between hearing loss, depression, and cognitive decline.”
Now more than ever, connecting is important.
Join HLAA "Closed" Facebook Group
to connect with HLAA members
The Hearing Loss Association of America – Official Community and Support closed Facebook group enables members to ask questions, share experiences, and offer support on how to live with hearing loss. Due to its “closed” status, members can comment and post without having either show up on their newsfeed. According to the group's administrators, "The primary focus and goal of HLAA is to create a safe haven and community for those who experience this world with hearing loss." To access and join the group, click here.
Having Trouble with Closed Captioning on TV?
Closed captioning (CC) gives people with hearing disabilities access to television programming — and provides a critical link to news, entertainment, and information — by displaying the audio portion of broadcasts as text on the television screen.

If you're unhappy with the quality of the closed captioning on a specific program, make your voice heard by filing a complaint with the FCC. It only takes a few minutes. Click here .

After you file a complaint, please let us know at [email protected].
Support HLAA - Become a Member
As the nation's leading organization for people with hearing loss, we provide information, education, support, and advocacy for the millions of Americans coping with hearing loss. Join online  or download a  membership form .
Our Favorite Hearing Loss Blogs
Hear Better with Looping:
NYC Looped Venues
Recognizing that theaters are closed due to the Coronavirus, we have temporarily suspended announcements. We look forward to updating this section when the theaters reopen.

DEFINITION OF LOOPING

A hearing loop is a wire that circles a room and is connected to a sound system. The loop transmits the sound electromagnetically to the telecoil (t-coil) in a hearing aid or cochlear implant. 

NYC LOOPED VENUES

Thanks to advocacy efforts by HLAA-NYC members, more and more venues in the metropolitan area are now looped. Click here to see a complete list of looped sites, compiled by HLAA-NYC members Alexandra Lutz and Ellen Semel.

The following theaters offer induction loops:  

Nederlander Organization
Gershwin
Minskoff
Richard Rodgers
Lunt-Fontanne
 
Shubert Organization
Bernard B. Jacobs
 
Lincoln Center
(both ticket booths are looped)
Vivian Beaumont
Mitzi E. Newhouse

Off-Broadway
Irish Repertory Theater
Second Stage
Westside Theatre (Upstairs Theatre)
Honor Someone with a Gift to HLAA-NYC 
Searching for the perfect way to observe a loved one's birthday, anniversary, or special occasion, OR to honor the memory of someone special? Please consider making a gift to HLAA-NYC Chapter to support our efforts.  

You can donate  online  or by mailing a check (payable to HLAA-NYC) to HLAA-NYC Chapter, P.O. Box 602, Radio City Station, New York, NY 10101. Include name and address. An acknowledgement will be mailed. Donations are tax deductible.