Amplification of a bad signal is worse than no amplification at all, and until recently many amplified phones made comprehension more difficult, not easier, for people with hearing loss. Recent advances in digital sound shaping technology borrowed from the digital signal processing in hearing aids have improved the situation markedly in wireline phones. But jamming all that processing power and software into a cordless handset has been a challenge. Clarity Products decided to tackle the problem head on, and people with hearing loss can be glad the company did. The Clarity Professional C4230 5.8GHz Cordless Amplified Phone not only provides up to 50 decibels of amplification, but also provides a very clear signal through its wireless handset.]]>
Better yet, unlike many other makers of amplified phones, who seem to be satisfied in offering the basic plain-vanilla handset with an amplified signal and little else, Clarity Products loaded the C4230 with all the bells and whistles heavy users expect at both the office and at home. It features dual speaker phones, with caller ID, call waiting, and a 40-name-and-number memory; it has a digital answering machine with variable-speed playback and remote access; the handset’s generously spaced buttons are backlit, making dialing easy; and its white, high-contrast LED screen is bright and easy to read. The handset’s contoured shape makes it comfortable and easy to hold, and its concave earpiece creates an acoustic chamber that provides clear sound while blocking ambient noise. The base station is handsome with an intuitive user interface and supports up to three handsets.The special features for hard-of-hearing users put the C4230 in the top of its class. It is hearing-aid-compatible, with digital 5.8GHz transmission providing interference-free sound. It provides up to 50 decibels of amplification controlled by the user; Clarity’s proprietary Digital Clarity Power (DCP) sound-shaping technology is integrated; and there are four DCP tone settings provide a customized listening experience. The result is calls that are not only louder, but clearer and easier to understand than most other cordless phones. There are also bright visual ringers in the handset and a base flash to signal incoming calls for people who can’t hear a normal ring.
Last but not least, it has a sleek, high-tech design that doesn’t shout out “don’t use me unless you’re old, infirm or have a disability” as many amplified phones seem to do.
A tree came down in our yard this week prompting a visit from our treeman, Conor Gleeson. Something was different this time: in addition to their usual safety helmets, Conor and his crew each were sporting a pair of bulky two-way communication headphones. I've seen them with hearing protectors in the past, because the noise of a high-speed wood chipper combined with several chain saws running at once can ruin your hearing in no time. But the new gear went way beyond hearing protection. Conor said he'd been saving up for a while and gotten the Rolls Royce of two-way communications and hearing protection systems from 3M's Aearo Corp.'s Peltor manufacturing subsidiary. Conor showed me how the headset has an external microphone to catch ambient sound, which he can turn on when the machines are off but shut down for hearing protection when he needs it. A two-way radio connection lets him communicate with up to seven of his employees, replacing his more cumbersome previous setup using hand-held walkie talkies. A sturdy boom mike on a 360-degree hinge avoids snags on branches while letting him communicate even when he is climbing. And a Bluetooth connection to his cell phone lets him stay in touch with customers and juggle work schedules with crews at multiple locations. Conor started his company a few years ago and is in his early 30s. So he is not from the macho generation of tree men who eschewed hard hats and other protective gear as unmanly. He says he's seen too many of his colleagues in their late 40s and early 50s barely able to work because of their hearing disabilities, even though they are perfectly fit otherwise. You can get fully equipped Peltor headsets in the $500 range, although models with fewer bells and whistles cost considerably less.
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Democratic US Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts is backing a bill that would require major producers of web videos to provide captioning, a piece of legislation that provides many other benefits for people with hearing, vision and other disabilities. Markey is one of the most senior legislators in Congress and a leader in shaping the nation's telecommunications policies. When he puts his whole weight behind a piece of communications legislation he usually gets it passed. So my recent cry for more web captions has been answered from on high! Federal legislation might also help motivate more standards for web-video formats, especially captioning, which still requires some work. Another element of the legislation would require that phones used for Internet calls (voice over IP calls) be compatible with hearing aids in the same way regular phone equipment now must work with hearing aids. For more on this landmark legislation, read today's Boston Globe article. I'll be tracking this one closely.
A few people were mightily disturbed by the funny video of Blendtec founder Tom Dickson grinding up a bunch of hearing aids in his company's high-tech blender. But at least one reader went beyond complaining and made the helpful suggestion to donate them to someone who needs them. The Lions Club will do it for you. I'm always up for a good laugh, and those "Will it Blend" videos are very well done. And compared to the tens of millions of dollars' worth of hearing aids sitting unsed in people's drawers, the waste of a few aids in Tom's blender seems like small change to me. If anything, I hope it's raised awareness of the problem of unused hearing aids and help encourage people to do two things: one, try new aids if the old ones didn't work the first time, because technology has gotten so much better; and two, do something useful with those unused aids--recycle them. The Lions Club International has been involved with hearing-loss issues since the days of Helen Keller and has a great recycling program. You can donate your aids at a number of the Lions Club centers around the country and rest assured they will be recyled for use by someone who otherwise couldn't afford them. It's a great program and worth your support. So, if you or a relative have some old hearing aids of your own sitting in the drawer, don't blend them, recycle them.
In the past few months my day job has picked up to the point where I haven't had a lot of time do write about hearing loss. In fact, I haven't had much time even to think about my hearing loss. That's a pretty amazing fact, given that only several years ago I thought about my hearing loss all the time and never imagined I'd function "normally" again. I've written before about how the brain gradually adapts and compensates for deficiencies, and how amazed I have been at the extent of my ability to function at higher and higher levels as time goes on. It's hard to describe. That's why I love the fact that David Paterson, the new governor of New York State, is demonstrating how and why he is able to do one of the world's most demanding jobs even though he is blind. Stephen Kuusisto, a blind author and educator, wrote an Op-Ed article in the New York Times this week that talks about this coping process very eloquently. It resonates well with anyone who has gone through the process of learning how to work around their hearing loss:
I just discovered a LiveJournal site called "Hearing-Aid Hacking" which gives great do-it-yourself advice on using assistive listening technologies with hearing aids. It features tips and new technologies from real hearing-aid users, everything from how to work with the direct-audio-input (DAI) connections on your hearings aids (if they have them), to the latest on new Bluetooth technologies (especially for mobile phone users) and on the new bells and whistles that hearing-aid manufacturers seem to constantly announce. Here is the site's mission statement: "For high end users of hearing aids. We're frustrated that we're behind the technology curve and pay huge dollars/pounds/euros for good hearing aids that are unaware of and incompatible with anything resembling recent advances in consumer audio tech. We're willing to blaze our own path because no one will do it for us until they realize there is money in them thar hills." If you are a new or experienced hearing-aid user, there is probably something there for you.
I just picked up Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks, and it is a revelation. Sacks is a physician and neurological specialist who has written extensively on previously unexplained phenomena with the brain. His book Awakenings, about coma patients who were administered a drug and awakened, returning briefly to normal lives, only to tragically lapse back into their comas when the drugs wore off, was made into a major motion picture with Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams in 1990. Musicophilia is a big book about how the brain assimilates, creates, and otherwise processes music. Because of Sacks’s passion for understanding how the brain interacts with the physical world, it has a lot of information on how the brain works with the hearing organs to process sound and interpret what we hear. Most exciting to me, it hints at some of the reasons why I’ve experienced a marked improvement over the past several years in my ability to hear -- not music, which is still gone completely for me, but to hear and understand people’s voices – even when my physical hearing tests have shown no improvement and even slight decline in hearing levels in both ears. Sacks is making me wonder whether the amazing human brain actually has the ability to correct and “cure” hearing loss to some degree, even when the physical hearing organs are damaged beyond repair. 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a new warning that cochlear implant patients make sure they get vaccinated against bacterial meningitis, a potentially deadly infection causing inflammation of the meninges, or lining of the brain. Several years ago a meningitis scare nearly halted the miraculous forward march of cochlear implant technology, as researchers struggled to find the cause of a rash of meningitis cases among children who had received implants. It was determined that a small rubber wedge used by surgeons to position the electrodes in the cochlea most likely led to higher incidences of infection, including meningitis. The positioner was only used with Advanced Bionics implants and the company quickly changed its surgical procedure so that the positioner was no longer needed. There still is some risk of meningitis infections, but it can be dramatically alleviated by ensuring patients are fully vaccinated. The FDA issued the new warning after two cochlear implant patients died from infections. Neither was fully vaccinated, and one likely died because of the lack of vaccination, the FDA said. It also noted a survey of cochlear implanted children revealed nearly half did not know whether their children had been fully vaccinated. It is advising healthcare providers to ensure their patients have proper vaccinations.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has ordered makers of the erectile dysfunction drugs Viagra, Cialis and Levitra to post prominent warnings on their labels of the possilbity they may cause sudden hearing loss. The FDA said it has received 29 reports of sudden hearing loss, both with and without accompanying ringing in the ears, vertigo, or dizziness following usage of the drugs. Most cases involved one ear, with either a partial or complete loss of usual hearing. In approximately one third of cases, the event was temporary. "Although no causal relationship has been demonstrated, the strong relationship between the use of these drugs and sudden hearing loss in these cases warrants revisions to the product labeling for this drug class," the FDA said in its release, which was accompanied by an excellent Q&A document. A surprisingly large number of drugs, including many chemotherapy drugs, are otoxic, meaning they can cause sudden hearing loss. The best overview of otoxic drugs I've seen is the book Otoxic Drugs Exposed by Neil Bauman, available on his web site.