NEWS & VIEWS
November-December 2021
212-769-HEAR
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PRESIDENT'S REPORT
by Jonathan Taylor
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We are very pleased to welcome Terrence Williams as the newest addition to our Board of Directors. For those of you who don’t recognize his name, Terrence is the long-time assistant director of the Berelson Hearing Technology Center at the Center for Hearing and Communication. He has also spoken about technology at numerous chapter meetings.
For many of you, your main connection with the chapter is through our monthly program meetings. You can read about the most recent programs in this newsletter. Captioned videos are also available. Links can be found in the Programs tab on our website, hearinglossnyc.org.
In addition to our monthly meetings, the chapter is involved in many activities. Our scholarship committee has distributed information about the Albert B. Chen scholarship to many organizations and individuals who may have contact with potential applicants. The college scholarship is made possible by funds donated by Albert B. Chen. Mr. Chen, who has a profound hearing loss, hopes to inspire younger generations to give back to the hearing loss community. This $5,000 scholarship is for a high school senior with hearing loss residing in New York City, and is to be used toward the pursuit of a college degree. The winner will be announced at our June 7 meeting.
In 2009, New York City schools stopped providing hearing screening. We believe this huge mistake may have resulted in many children with hearing loss going undiagnosed or possibly misdiagnosed as having an intellectual disability or autism. Those children may not have received the support that would have helped them be more successful in school, and in life. As part of an initiative to get the Department of Education to reinstate screening. we are hoping to start a pilot program to demonstrate its importance. Katrien Vermeire, an audiologist on the LIU Brooklyn faculty, who is also a Professional Adviser to the chapter, has offered to supervise her doctoral students who would test kids in public schools. In addition, she would supply equipment so that there would be no cost to the schools.
The pilot program might be a useful impetus for action by the City Council, which is perhaps the most important way to get screening reinstated. Toward that end, we have emailed a proposed resolution to Mayor-elect Eric Adams, Brad Lander (who was elected Controller), and thirty recently elected City Council members. Mr. Adams has said that the failure to detect his own dyslexia when he was young held him back in school. He has already started an initiative to institute screening for dyslexia. We are hopeful he will support our parallel efforts to screen for hearing loss. A few newly elected City Council members have responded favorably; one, Rita Joseph, is eager to sponsor the resolution. After January 1, we will again reach out to the relevant people, including the new commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, the new chancellor of education, the newly elected speaker of the City Council, as well as the chair of the Education Committee.
After the November meeting (see the recap below), many of you inquired about the possibility of a similar meeting with someone from Apple. We would like to assure you that we do not play favorites and have invited Apple to present a program. Unfortunately, these efforts have not been successful. Here is a link to a current article about apps that you might find useful on Androids or Apple.
We would like very much to set up an Instagram account in the hope of attracting some younger members to the chapter. If you have expertise in Instagram and are interested in helping, please email us at info@hearinglossnyc.org. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.
On behalf of everyone on the Board, I would like to wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season and new year. I hope to see many of you at our January 4 shared stories meeting when you will be invited to discuss the things you have learned during the pandemic—the challenging and, surprisingly, the good.
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SAVE THE DATES
Upcoming (Virtual) Chapter Meetings
January-June 2022
CART provided by Lauren Schechter of Total Caption
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January 4. What We've Learned from the Pandemic: The Bad and, Surprisingly, the Good. Our annual interactive meeting. Katherine Bouton and Holly Cohen will moderate.
February 1. Representatives from Innocaption will discuss their free captioning service for Android and iPhone, which provides live captioning for all your telephone calls, including voice messages.
March 1. Meet the Audiologists. Michael Bergen (CUNY, Brooklyn College), William Shapiro (NYU) and Ellen LaFargue (CHC) on what's new in hearing aids and assistive listening devices.
April 5. Cochlear Implants. David Landsberger, an auditory scientist at the NYU Langone Medical Center and an HLAA-NYC board member, will moderate a panel discussion that will include otolaryngologist Maja Svrakic and audiologist Lisa Mener from Long Island Jewish Medical Center, as well as otolaryngologist Sean McMenomey and an audiologist TBD from NYU Langone.
May 3. Program TBD. Our focus will be on young hearing professionals with hearing loss, panelists TBD. Alternately, a panel discussion featuring senior audiologists and new graduates, discussing how the audiology curriculum is changing.
June 7. Our annual meeting and awards ceremony, including announcement of the Albert B. Chen Scholarship award winner. Speaker TBD.
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SHARE YOUR TELEHEALTH STORIES
Peggy Ellertsen and Toni Iacolucci
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If you have experienced telehealth services, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) would love to hear your stories—both those that included communication accommodations and those that involved communication access barriers.
The HLAA Communication Access in Health Care program is in the process of building relationships with a range of stakeholders invested in the delivery of quality healthcare, including students preparing to work in the healthcare profession. Our outreach has included the AAMC, an organization whose goals include the advancement of medical education to make patient care safer and more equitable.
We recently spent time talking to two members of the AAMC team whose work is focused on influencing curricula for medical students related to clinical innovations in telehealth practices and equitable access for all patients.
We can't stress strongly enough how convinced we are that the voices of people with hearing loss matter! If you have a patient story that you are willing to share, please send it to the HLAA Communication Access in Health Care program at healthcareaccess@hearingloss.org.
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With prompting from HLAA members Jerry Bergman (NYC Chapter) and Eric Matson (Rochester Chapter) and with the help of HLAA’s National Office, the Office of the New York State Attorney General Letitia James issued a consumer alert on December 10 warning of deceptive or misleading direct-to-consumer sales of products purporting to be hearing aids:
CONSUMER ALERT: Attorney General James Issues Alert to Warn New York Consumers to Be Cautious of Companies Marketing Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids. Consumers Who Believe They Have Been Misled or Scammed by Sellers of Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids Should File Complaint With OAG
NEW YORK — New York Attorney General Letitia James today issued a consumer alert warning New Yorkers about deceptive companies selling unregulated and potentially faulty over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids. New York law requires that hearing aids only be sold by licensed audiologists or hearing aid dispensers after such a provider has performed an exam and fitting. Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed a rule permitting the sale of a new category of OTC hearing aids that could be sold directly to consumers without an exam. While unregulated OTC hearing aids may work as intended, there is a risk that the devices could be defective or completely inadequate for the treatment of hearing loss. Advertisements for these new OTC hearing aids have already targeted New York consumers even though there are currently no OTC hearing aids that have received FDA approval.
“Hearing loss impacts individuals of all ages and backgrounds and I urge all New Yorkers to do their research before shopping for these devices,” said Attorney General James. “Companies that sell over-the-counter hearing devices are not held to the same standards as the licensed professionals who provide these critical devices, and they are not required to inform consumers of the risks associated with their products. While consumers may be tempted to purchase these unregulated and unlawful products because of their low prices, the ultimate price you pay may be further hearing loss.”
Medical device companies are required to register and list their devices with the FDA, though this registration only indicates that the company has provided information to the FDA; it does not indicate FDA approval, clearance, or authorization of the device. Unfortunately, this has not stopped some disreputable sellers of OTC hearing devices from falsely claiming that their products are “FDA-registered” or “FDA-cleared.”
If you are considering buying a hearing aid, the Office of the Attorney General recommends the following tips:
Beware of misleading claims. Over-the-counter hearing aids are only meant to treat mild to moderate hearing loss and may not be able to treat severe hearing loss. Avoid purchasing OTC hearing aids that claim to treat severe hearing loss or hearing loss in children.
Do your research. Be skeptical of testimonials on a seller’s website. Instead, check with the Better Business Bureau to see if they have a good rating and whether consumers have submitted complaints against the company before you purchase a product.
Consider having your hearing evaluated by a medical professional. While online hearing tests may be convenient, they may fail to detect serious hearing loss, or the underlying causes of your hearing loss.
Know your rights: Under New York law (General Business Law § 798(11)), if you are unhappy with your hearing aids you are allowed to return them within 45 days of receipt, including batteries, cords, and accessories and all fees related to the hearing aid, for a full refund less 10 percent. The seller must provide you with a written statement with this information. If a seller offers a longer return period, they must honor it.
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November Chapter Meeting Recap
How Your Smart Phone Helps You Hear Better
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Sagar Savla, senior product manager for Google's Artificial Intelligence Research Team, described Google products for Android phones that help people with hearing loss, including Live Transcribe, an app that captions conversations. Sagar’s interest in captioning began with his desire to help his grandmother communicate as her hearing loss progressed.
Sagar said accessibility is a core part of Google's mission. “When we think of accessibility, we think of providing access across different domains, be it physical dexterity, hearing loss, or vision loss,” he noted. “However, when you design for accessibility, it benefits far more users than you might think. For example, people in wheelchairs were unable to use the sidewalks until ramps became commonplace. In addition to wheelchair users, ramps ended up helping people wheeling strollers, people with rolling suitcases, and others.
As per Sagar, “The main Android offerings for people with hearing loss are captions and amplification. And you can use your hearing aid or cochlear implant with those features. But what if you can't afford a hearing aid or CI, or if you are trying to determine if you need a hearing aid or CI? We have an app called Sound Amplifier that boosts the audio but not the background noise—that is, the sounds that you actually care about, including music.”
Sagar continued, “What about the times you have a discussion with a buddy, or you’re at a meeting where there’s no captioner available. That's where Live Transcribe comes in. Live Transcribe provides free real-time captions in over 80 languages. The app also recognizes 40 nonspeech sounds, such as applause and dog barking. This allows free-flowing conversations. Sagar also described Google Meet, a captioned video communication service that is similar to Zoom and is available on all platforms—Android phones, iPhones, and computers.”
To watch a video of the November meeting on YouTube, click here.
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December Meeting Recap
Composer Gabriela Lena Frank
Discusses Her Hearing Loss
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Gabriela Lena Frank, a Grammy Award‑winning composer‑in‑residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra, talked about how her hearing loss has affected her development and professional success. Born in Berkeley, California, in 1972, Gabriela was included in the Washington Post's list of the 35 most significant women composers in history. In 2017, she founded the award‑winning Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, a non‑profit training Institution for emerging composers.
Although Gabriela was born with a hearing loss, her love of music began early on. As she explains it, “I would go to the piano while my brother was having his lessons and sit with my back against the instrument, so I could feel the piano during his lessons. At the suggestion of Gabriela’s kindergarten teacher, her parents had her hearing tested when she was five and her hearing loss was finally diagnosed. Soon afterward, she started piano lessons. Her grandmother, who played in Carnegie Hall, recognized Gabriela’s musical gifts.
Gabriela did well scholastically, and she was planning to go into political science. “But then I took a music program right before I applied to college,” she said, “and I fell hard. I changed overnight and I went into this field.” As a musician and composer, she noted, “I can hear everything. Where I have trouble is if I'm writing a symphony for, say, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and I'm in the audience during a rehearsal, and the conductor, turns around and says: ‘Gabi, do you like it this way or that way?’ I cannot hear the voice.” Her preferred way of addressing this is to ask the assistant conductor to look directly at her and repeat what the conductor is saying.
Regarding Beethoven, who wrote some of his most masterful pieces of music as his hearing was fading, Gabriela said, “I see him as an accidental giant. He was writing the music that he needed to write as a man struggling with hearing loss. In his earlier compositions he sounds like a late Mozart. But the further we go in his lifetime, you start seeing many things that show up in his piano sonatas that a deaf person could perceive more easily. We know that his hearing disappeared from the middle range out. So he was chasing the notes as they were running away from him, going higher and higher and lower and lower.”
Toward the end of her talk, Gabriela said, “My hearing loss hasn't been a loss, necessarily. It's really formed my personality. It's helped me be unusual in my perspective and work. I believe people who have a handicap can explore other possibilities, other vistas and perspectives that are different because their body is different.”
To watch a video of the December meeting on YouTube, click here.
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Our Favorite Hearing Loss Blogs |
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Katherine Bouton
Has the Pandemic Affected Your Hearing?
Captions have become ubiquitous during these many months of isolation. Is that an unmitigated good for those with hearing loss? For me, at least, maybe not. When I watch TV or streaming video, it’s captioned. I set the volume so I can hear the spoken words to supplement the captions, but it’s the other way around. The captions fool me into thinking I’m hearing. My phone is captioned, and again the captions seem to clarify the sound. Meetings online are captioned. Thank goodness. This is all very convenient, but is it good for my hearing? Read more of this post.
Shari Eberts
I Inherited My Hearing Loss Stigma from My Father
What causes hearing loss stigma? Does it come from within — our own insecurities about whether we are now as whole as we once were before we lost our hearing? Or from external factors like societal pressures that demand perfection and youth. For me, it started in my childhood, watching my father struggle with his own hearing issues. He wore one hearing aid, then two, but always kept his hair grown long over his ears to hide them, even when this was no longer in fashion. Many of us with hearing loss battle stigma for years. We worry people will think less of us because we cannot hear well or that they won’t want to bother taking the extra effort it takes to communicate with us in certain environments. It can sometimes feel easier to disengage, sitting home alone rather than take the risk of social interaction. But we know that is not the right answer. Read more of this post.
Gael Hannan
Hearing Holiday Tips for the Stars!
How do we, the people with hearing loss, overcome the noisy barriers and reclaim the joy of the season? When the sounds we love become noise and when the people become too many, how can we stay included? If you have hearing loss or tinnitus, I’m sure you’ve read more than one article on how to survive the noisy, busy holidays—especially when you’re spending it with people who forget that you have hearing loss and/or tinnitus. I always need reminders on how to not give in to the bah-humbug of challenging holiday dinners and social events. We need to know what can help and then mix in some patience and planning. Here are some great, basic holiday communication tips from a couple of writers with years of experience with highly emotional, holiday-time barriers. Read more of this post.
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Join HLAA "Closed" Facebook Group;
Connect with HLAA Members Across the Country
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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. |
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Having Trouble with Closed Captioning on TV? |
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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.
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Support HLAA - Become a Member |
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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 membership form. |
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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.
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