a more silent world

New Marvel Processors by Advanced Bionics - Review

2022-01-24T12:02:00.001-05:00

It has been about 7 years since I received my first cochlear implant. I chose Advanced Bionics in 2014 and received their Q70 processor at activation. This was their first processor based on Phonak technology, since both companies are owned by Sonova.

The Q70 was a very good processor, and coupled with their HiRes Fidelity 120 programming strategy, I enjoyed good appreciation of music. I use the Optima-P strategy in particular. The processor was much smaller than the previous Harmony processor, and featured a much smaller, if fragile, t-mic2. The t-mic is arguably the best feature offered by AB. It is a microphone that hangs by a wire, and is positioned near the ear canal, allowing me to use headphones and mobile phones normally, by positioning the speaker where everyone else would hold it, instead of having to hold the speakers up near the top of the ear, where traditional mics are placed.

With the Q70, I was able to use Bluetooth devices, but that required a ComPilot--a small box that hangs around the neck. It works, but it's obviously not ideal.

The Marvel is based on an entirely new technology platform being used by Phonak, and is even smaller and lighter than the Q70 processor. The biggest feature here is.... BUILT IN BLUETOOTH!!! I cannot begin to describe how amazing it is to walk around a store, or out in the neighborhood and listen to music directly from my phone. The sound quality seems even higher than the Q70. The other major improvement is AutoSense. Whereas I used to need to switch into another program if I went from a quiet environment into a noisy restaurant, this is not all automatic, and works really well. I used AutoSense my first time at a very noisy happy hour, and was very pleased with the result. I was generally able to hear people better than all my Hearing friends, which is really impressive.

If you have insurance support, I strongly recommend replacing your aging Q70 or Q90 processors with the Marvel processor!

Happy Hearing Journey!

CODA - Movie Review and Thoughts

2022-01-24T11:49:00.000-05:00

CODA is a new movie, available on Apple TV+ (free trial) and was made with high involvement from Deaf community members, and features several prominent Deaf actors like Marlee Matlin, etc. The movie follows the story of a Deaf family where both parents are Deaf, one kid is Deaf, and the other kid can hear. There are obvious culture conflicts here, and the movie covers these, as well as exposing the discrimination that is felt my Deaf people in our Hearing world on a daily basis.

It is a sweet movie, and definitely worth watching!

Walt Disney World Orlando - tips, tricks, and observations

2018-03-29T09:07:00.000-04:00

Overview

We recently took our first family trip to Walt Disney World (WDW) in Orlando, and I wanted to share some information that may save you time, money, and headaches. We have two kids around 10 years old, so keep that in mind since some of our choices

Where to stay

Your choice in where to stay could depend on how much time you plan to spend at the hotel. For us, the hotel was merely a place to shower and sleep when we weren't at parks. A mini fridge, onsite ice machine, and ability to accept grocery deliveries were of paramount importance, and we needed easy transportation back and forth from the parks.

Given all the above, we stayed at the Port Orleans resort. It is moderately priced, nice, clean, and has very good transportation via bus.

TIP: the biggest perk of staying at a Disney hotel is the ability to book all your fast passes 60 days before your arrival. This ensures that you get a good selection. Fast pass selection opens at 7:00 AM ET so be ready, because there are literally thousands of people trying for passes the same time as you.

Getting to the Hotel

Another perk of staying at a Disney hotel is the Magical Express bus. It takes you from Orlando airport to your hotel.

TIP: in our experience, it is anything BUT express from the airport to the hotel since it takes a while to board, then stops at several hotels. It took us 2 hours to get from airport to hotel.

That said, the trip is quick and easy from the hotel back to the airport. You absolutely need to call the lobby during your stay and let them know your outbound flight info, and they will give you a boarding pass and a pickup time for your bus!!

Food

We chose to avoid meal plans, and I am thrilled to say that this worked extremely well for us. For starters, I didn't want to feel constrained by, or even have to deal with thinking about credits, etc. Also, since our kids are a bit older and not all that picky, we did counter service for almost everything.

A week or so before our flight, we bought a bunch of groceries from Instacart and scheduled delivery for our approximate hotel arrival time. We were thus able to get tons of different apples, bananas, sunscreen, a paring knife, crackers, cookies, yogurts, etc. The prices were only like 10% higher than a normal grocery store, and for the convenience it is well worth it. So breakfast was fruits and yogurts, etc in our room every day.

TIP: make reservations for any sit-down restaurants when you get your fast passes. Via Napoli in Epcot was really good pizza. 50's Prime Time in Hollywood Studios was good food and a super fun experience.

Buses from Hotel to Parks

In our experience, the buses were well done. The bus stop has a TV showing bus times, and it was really accurate. Buses are clearly marked with destination to avoid "oops" trips.

That said, we were on the morning bus 1 hour before park opening, and thus they were fairly empty. And we really hurried to buses after fireworks to beat the crowds, so while they were standing-room-only, crammed like sardines, we never waited beyond the first bus.

Arrive at Parks EARLY!!!

Again, if your kids can handle it, make sure you get to the bus stop 1 hour before park opening. This will ensure you can get to the park, go through security, badge in, and get to the "rope" well before opening time. Each park has a place where they rope people off--some have multiple ropes at various areas in the parks. Generally, they drop the rope 5-10 minutes before posted opening time.

Fast Passes

You will get to pick 3 fast passes per day. You can use your fast passes as early as 15 minutes before the start time. You must use all 3 fast passes before you can get your next fast pass (and after the first 3, it is one at a time). So try to get all 3 passes with times before about 1pm.

If your first fast pass time starts within the first hour or opening, your goal should be to hit the most popular attractions during that first hour when crowds are lowest. EXAMPLE:

Magic Kingdom opens at 9:00 am

You have the following fast passes

Mine train - 9:45
Pirates - 10:45
Splash Mountain - 11:45

At 8:45 am you go to Tomorrowland "rope" and ride Space Mountain. Then quickly walk to Big Thunder. Then quickly ride Pirates, and Haunted Mansion. Try to ride Peter Pan. Use your Mine Train fast pass. And so on...

Fireworks

Unlike Disneyland, you can freely stand almost anywhere for the fireworks shows. Ask staff early in the day where you should be and when to get there.

Parades

If your kids don't love parades, this is the opportune time to ride things in Fantasyland!! Make sure you know what times parades will be during the day, and be ready in Fantasyland during those times.

Staff

The staff are amazingly helpful and knowledgeable! Ask them questions, and thank them! They can make your time at the park way easier with tips and insider knowledge.

Deaf TV Show - Discussing Cochlear Implants

2015-02-14T19:06:00.001-05:00

Kadie and I participated in a local Deaf-Services TV show to discuss cochlear implants. This is Part 1 of a multi-part show that will feature people who have had good success with implants, and also people who have not had very good success.

BCTV - World of Perceptions

Enjoy!

Cochlear Implants, Music, and Pitch Perception

2014-11-23T17:28:00.001-05:00

I wanted to write a bit about music perception, specifically pitch perception with my implants. I was a classically-trained musician for quite a long time during my youth when my hearing was more-or-less normal. My pitch perception was relatively perfect, meaning, if you gave me a Middle C, I could re-create the entire 88 pitches in my head with very high accuracy.

When I got my first implant activated and started intensive music therapy on my own, using songs I know very well, the perception was quite inaccurate. A specific example of this was using a guitar. I would play various notes, and for the most part it "sounded like" buzzing during the first 2-3 months. After that, pitch started to come through, but a weird thing happened with the actual perception of each pitch: I would perceive pitches as "different" going up and down a string, but there was also the presence of another pitch. This is best demonstrated by a picture.

So essentially, the guitar string in reality was playing the "orange" note on the far left, but what I was hearing was a distinct "red" and "yellow" note.

It has now been 8 months since activation, during which I generally listen to about 2 hours of music during my commute. I believe I am extremely close to the orange note on the far left, if not on it. Music with which I am intimately familiar sounds more or less like it did when my hearing loss was very mild.

But I'd like to speculate here on causality for a minute. The high frequencies of my hearing steadily decreased from the time I was very young, until finally disappearing last year. They have been almost completely shot for at least a decade. Given this, I have been functionally deaf in those frequencies for a long time.

So what happens when I am suddenly able to hear across the entire spectrum again? It's like walking from a dark room outside after a fresh snow with full sun. It's overwhelmingly bright, and details cannot be resolved!

People with normal hearing, even if they are musicians, are generally unaware of just how many harmonics are present in even a single tone from an instrument or a voice. Also, the timbre that gives the instrument its unique sound. But having been deaf to most of the spectrum for 10+ years, my brain was unable to "flatten" all those layers and properly perceive it as a single tone, instead perceiving harmonics and timbre as phantom tones and buzzing, respectively.

I find all of this very interesting to think about. I also wonder how much my previous experience as a musician has aided my rehabilitation using cochlear implants. I hope someday to be able to leverage my experience to improve the technology and coding algorithms for future generations of implants.

Bilateral Cochlear Implants!

2014-10-01T21:01:00.002-04:00

And on the heels of my 6 month update, I am happy to share that I got my second implant two weeks ago!

I will be getting activated on October 14, and I plan to spend the first 2-3 weeks wearing only the new processor in an effort to equalize the new side instead of letting my good ear be a crutch/hindrance.

I'm hoping my second activation goes as well as my first. Fingers crossed!

Cochlear Implant - 6 month update

2014-10-01T20:58:00.001-04:00

How are things going?

Overall, I could not possibly be happier with my CI. It has completely blown away even my highest expectations. I've been using essentially the same sound processing strategies (Optima P, ClearVoice medium, IDR 60) for about 5 months now, with minor tweaks here and there. The only time I even bother to change programs, is when I am in a very noisy situation like a restaurant, and want to use UltraZoom which allows me to focus on sound in front of me.

How does music sound?

This is probably the hardest part to explain, and is somewhat philosophical because I cannot possibly know how things sound to other people. As a child, I had only minor hearing loss, and I was an active musician with perfect pitch perception. So I also don't know what it is like for people who don't have good pitch perception.

Another thing that makes it hard to explain: music through my CI is both infinitely better and far worse than it was with hearing aids. I have not been able to effectively hear high frequencies for more than 20 years now, so to suddenly hear this entire range of music is insanely cool. On the downside, low frequencies are sorely lacking through my CI, and clarity leaves a lot to be desired, especially in complex music.

My pitch perception is now better than it has been in about 15 years, and has improved slowly but immensely over the course of the last six months.

Can I talk on a phone?

YES!!! To my great surprise, my iPhone is now the most effective way to communicate with people on the phone. When I had hearing aids, I was only able to use high-quality speaker phones, and now they sound bad compared to holding my iPhone to my ear.

Challenges

Like hearing aids, CI's are not perfect and there are some very serious challenges that we face that can be confusing to people around us. I can carry on a perfectly normal conversation with someone in a small room, and 5 minutes later find myself unable to make out anything being said. The biggest challenges:

Competing noise, especially other voices
Rooms that have a strong echo
Most TVs, radios, etc sound quite distorted

Post-Activation - 11 Day Followup

2014-03-29T15:20:00.001-04:00

I've gone back for my second mapping. I had a moderately long wish list and we got through everything.

I cannot stress enough how vitally important it is to understand how cochlear implants work, and what the tunable parameters are, and what each one does. It makes far better use of our limited time together if I can convey what I need in "audiologist language".

First, I wanted my favorite program in slot 1. No brainer. HiRes 120, Clear Voice medium, IDR set to 60, using tmic only.

So next, we had to kill the RF lock issue I was having due to my thick skin flap and some residual swelling. We did this by overriding the automatic RF power. We made two copies of my favorite program, and set the RF power to 8 on one, and 12 on another. SoundWave estimates I will get 7 hours from the large batteries on level 12 instead of 22 hours on automatic. OUCH. But it's better than dropping RF lock all day long.

Finally I wanted one copy of that program with UltraZoom, and another copy with IDR set to 80 and ClearVoice set to low for listening to music and TV (next time I want CV off on this program).

Last night I was getting sore as the skin thins out from the pressure of the magnet, and was thrilled to find good magnet hold with only 2 of 5 magnets installed in my head piece! Both the RF power required to hold RF lock, and the magnet strength required to hold the head piece seem to change day over day. I imagine this will settle as all swelling subsides and my head gets used to having pressure from the magnet.

How is everything sounding?

Speech in quiet is real awesome, though women sound more realistic than men. Men all sound a bit like Kermit. I think I need to boost M/T levels around 1000Hz
Speech in noise is difficult, but combined with lip-reading it is workable for the most part
Music. Sigh. For the most part music that is not overly complex has the best chance of sounding decent. But then there's also a huge dependence on the vocals. Anything with lots of percussion sounds good due to the large pitch range of percussion. Rap sounds pretty normal.
TV and Computers can be difficult. I think it has more to do with the sound dynamics of the room, since hooking up to TV with comPilot sounds pretty excellent. Need more practice.
iPhone held to my ear is pretty workable. Depending on the person's voice, it can sound quite excellent. Speaker phones fall into the same category as TV and Computers for the moment.
Rooms with a high amount of echo are a huge challenge!

Activation!

2014-03-18T20:16:00.000-04:00

Well activation day was today. I've got to admit, there may have actually been more excitement and anxiety than with the surgery date itself. At the end of the day there's good news and bad news, but almost all good news.

First, the bad news. I sat down in my audiologist's office and we assembled the Naida's, hooked them to her computer, and SoundWave recognized the processor right away, but sat there searching endlessly for the implant. We swapped processors, cables, head pieces, everything. Searching never ends, and implant is never found. This feeling strongly resembles flying by a cop at 90 mph. Sinking, nauseous, kill-me-now feeling.

The surgeon had said the skin flap was *very* thick, so I already knew this was a possibility, but hoped I wouldn't be in some tiny minority. Can I at least win the lottery? Now there's a minority we all would like to become a part of! Not going through a surgery to discover that the computer can't find your implant. We put the maximum number of magnets in the head piece and it just barely stuck in place.

My audiologist called AB and she starts searching her parts bins, and pulls out this HUGE "Platinum Series" body-word processor that looks like some toy from the 80's (hereto forth known as The Relic). Hooks it up to the computer and sticks the head piece on, and 30 seconds later I'm hearing test sequences and we're adjusting volumes across 16 channels. Awesome, except the SoundWave software refuses to let her do anything with the Naida because it can't find the implant.

So the work around is to program The Relic (which doesn't support all the new features obviously) and then copy the program to the Naida while it's off my head. Then we try that program and see how it sounds. Essentially we have lost the ability to tweak in real-time, which really sucks.

Now for the good news. Even with The Relic, when she first turned it on, I was immediately able to hear her voice--quite clearly. And since I have heard her before I lost all hearing in both ears, I know that it sounds pretty accurate. No Darth Vader. No helium-sucking-kids. No chipmunks.

I compare the feeling to the whole "3D pictures from the 1990's". You know, those stupid pictures that look like random paint splatters, and after staring at them for 10 minutes, it suddenly turns into a 3D object, and the moment you look away and then look back, it has vanished again.

I hear a lot of noise that sounds like old computer modems, and then voices will jump out plain as day. Then it kind of fades back into that noise. I suspect as time goes on, that noise permanently becomes the clear voices. We'll see...

Healing...

2014-02-27T11:54:00.003-05:00

Lots and lots of healing. The body is a pretty amazing piece of work. I had a noticeable amount of swelling on the CI side of my face yesterday (day 2). I don't really need any pain meds anymore--it just feels like a long-lived headache now. I still can't chew properly because it seems the jaw muscles are very much connected to the muscles near the temple, and that region hurts like a bitch when I try to chew anything beyond yogurt/pudding. Also the swelling in the ear area seems to be where a lot of the jaw action takes place, and that isn't pleasant either...

So day one was almost all sleep. Day two, I was awake for roughly 5-6 hours total. Today I have been awake for over 4 hours and still not drained.

All in all, I'm in surprisingly good shape. Can't wait to feel completely normal again. I feel the knock of boredom coming really soon.

Completely deaf ear is implanted

2014-02-25T08:04:00.001-05:00

I had my surgery yesterday and got implanted with the Advanced Bionics mid-scala electrode. Surgery took about two hours, and pain in recovery was bad the first hour and I just felt miserable for a couple hours after that. I got home 6 hours after surgery ended and felt reasonably good by managing pain with Percocets. I'm not a back sleeper, so trying to sleep was a bit of a challenge. I slept mostly on my side and tried some on my stomach, but pain kept waking me.

This morning I still feel okay with pain meds. I have to take off the compression bandage today so more to come.

All FCC caption complaint links broken on website

2013-12-21T18:58:00.003-05:00

I'm trying to file a captioning complaint at the official FCC website and every single link is broken. To say I am pissed off is an understatement. Screw you FCC!

http://www.fcc.gov/accessibility-complaints-form-2000c

Thanks for nothing.

Cool new way to graph an audiogram

2013-11-01T20:52:00.000-04:00

I've been messing around quite a bit with a Javascript framework graphing toolset called HighCharts. I tweaked it to graph my past and current audiograms and you can see the output here:

Here is a link to the HTML:

http://theunixguys.com/audiogram.html

Feel free to look at the source and use it as a template to graph your own. It is just static HTML and you just need to customize the values.

Sudden Deafness in One Ear

2013-10-18T14:59:00.004-04:00

Last week I dropped into full silence on one side. But let's take a look back first...

I've been losing my hearing now for 35 years. It has been a slow and steady loss; the kind that goes unnoticed over weeks and even many months. But over the years it has been like becoming a senior citizen many times over. A cycle in which I must realize (or more accurately, admit to myself) that I have lost an appreciable amount of hearing and I either need to have my hearing aids adjusted or replaced. A cycle that requires me to "learn" how to hear again because, after getting the aids adjusted or replaced, my world sounds drastically different than it did the day before.

My first cycle occurred in my mid-twenties, as I entered the work force. I realized in large meetings that I was missing an awful lot of what was being said by coworkers. People, when they are not confident in what they are saying tend to be quieter, and well, some people just have small voices. Nonetheless, I decided to turn my back on vanity and focus on utility, so I got my first set of hearing aids. It was a dramatic change to be able to hear things that I may have never possibly heard before in my life, or maybe it had just been so long that I had forgotten what these things really sounded like.

I have since gone through a few more cycles of hearing aids, but I have also done something in the last seven years that has changed my life forever. I made a connection with my local Deaf community. I started learning ASL seven years ago, and have since become mostly fluent. I made friends and built a support network. I saw how my Deaf friends live and it inspired me by their confidence and perseverance, and took away any notions that I was isolated in my experiences. Along the way, we had a son who also cannot hear normally, and with that ASL has been integrated into my family also.

My hearing up until last week was pretty dismal. My thresholds were about 90dB in my better ear and 100dB in my worse ear. But thresholds rarely tell the whole story, because sound needs to be clear to understand words. In my better ear at perfect volume, I was able to understand about half of the words being said, while my worse ear I could comprehend about 10% of words being said. Again, dismal.

So last weekend, without any warning, my hearing simply disappeared in my better ear. Not to say this was a quiet event, though. I "heard" quite a lot of ringing and such, which is apparently not uncommon. Unlike the last 35 years, this was no gradual event. Poof, and it's gone.

So at this point, I'm waiting to see if the prednisone I was prescribed by my ENT will restore any or all of that lost hearing. I am also moving forward on an accelerated timeline with a cochlear implant on my worse side. I realize not all Deaf agree with CI's, but we live in a Hearing-dominated world. I like my career, and my career requires me to interact quite a lot with people outside my company and frequently outside my country. People still just don't understand the limitations that Deaf and HoH people face, why we need captions and not just louder volume, why we cannot lipread everyone, etc.

I feel pretty lucky, though. I have ASL. I have a family who is pretty fluent in ASL. I already know how to use interpreters, caption phones, IP relays, VRS, and videophones. I already have an alarm clock capable of waking me up in the morning, or when someone at work needs me in the middle of the night. I feel lucky, and at the same time, I become aware just how disabling it must be for someone without these resources to continue functioning if they were to experience sudden hearing loss. As always, part of the reason I write here is so I can share my insight, my experiences, and my resources with other people in similar situations. We're not alone.

Going in for a CI consult

2013-08-07T22:51:00.001-04:00

Since the very nature of my job requires lots of interaction with clients, I'm going to see about getting a CI in my recently-dead ear. I can make out only about 10 percent of spoken words in that ear now so it's definitely candidate. Leaning towards the new Naida processor by Advanced Bionics. We'll see...

Guest Blog - Children and Hearing Loss-Changing Lives by Raising Awareness

2013-05-02T20:01:00.004-04:00

This is my first guest post, by fellow blogger John O'Connor - bloggingwjohno.blogspot.com

Perfect hearing is something that the average person really takes for granted. When people think of hearing loss, they often associate the condition with people who are old in age. Hearing loss is common in babies and young children. A person can be born deaf of suffer hearing loss gradually over time. Of the estimated 738,000 people in the U.S. who have experienced substantial hearing loss, 8 percent of those people fall under the age of 18. People should understand that hearing loss is something that affects people from all backgrounds of all ages. Many people, especially children, are at risk for hearing loss.

It is estimated that 15 percent of children between the ages of 6-19 years old have experienced low or high frequency hearing at the 16th decibel in one or both ears. Children who may be hard of hearing may find it hard to grasp certain concepts like word order or may have a hard time learning grammar in school. Depending on the severity of the hearing impairment, the person has one of two options available to them to navigate these challenges. Children may have to wear a hearing aid, which amplifies the sound and redirects it into the user's ear. Others may learn sign language. Individuals who are deaf or have suffered hearing loss will have to learn sign language as a means to communicate with others.

Children must be assured that they will be able to have a wonderful, fulfilling life with a hearing impairment. Although children will have to grapple with bullying and may struggle with communications, many go on to excel in different areas of their lives. Pete Townshend was a rock musician who enjoyed a stellar career as a guitarist and songwriter for The Who. Although being hearing impaired, he enjoyed 40 years in the entertainment field. Townshend has tinnitus and is partially deaf. He credits his hearing loss to a noisy environment where he was consistently exposed to loud music. Actress Marlee Matlin has lost 80 percent of her hearing in her left ear. Since a toddler, she has struggled with hearing loss. Her strong support system helped her adapt to her condition and excel in acting. The actress went on to win an Oscar and a Golden Globe award with a hearing impairment.

EarQ supplier hearing aids nationwide, has recently launched a HearStrong campaign to raise awareness about hearing impairments. The company has launched the “HearStrong Champions” campaign, an initiative that identifies people with hearing impairments to serve as role models to those affected by hearing loss. The “HearStrong Champions” encourage others to pursue their goals and dreams in spite of having hearing loss.

Although having a hearing impairment can be an adjustment for the family and the child, the condition doesn’t have to ruin the person's life. It is up to the parent to help the child navigate the many challenges of being hearing impaired and make sure that the child feels like there are no limitations because of the condition. Parents should also be proactive in scheduling regular hearing screenings for their child to protect the child's hearing and detect hearing loss. The abundance of knowledge, resources and technology available make it possible for children with hearing impairments to enjoy fulfilling lives.

Hi my name is John O'Connor, I am a father, outdoorsman, sports enthusiast and passionate about living a healthy lifestyle. Check out my new blog at bloggingwjohno.blogspot.com!

New type of "hearing aid" coming?

2013-04-04T11:53:00.001-04:00

Hearing aids, even the most powerful one, have their limits. Many people, myself included, find themselves either near or past these limits and in the domain of cochlear implants (CI).

Obviously CI are very expensive (some/most insurance will cover) and require hospitalization and surgery to implant. Getting a CI also means that person can no longer have MRI scans performed unless the MRI machine is below a certain magnetic threshold or the magnet on the implant is surgically removed--though I am told the latter can be done outpatient.

Researchers are working with a prototype of a new type of "hearing aid" that is "implanted" in the ear drum, a very minor surgery that is done outpatient. The implant can reach 120 dB, which is fairly amazing. More details on this link:

http://www.fraunhofer.de/en/press/research-news/2013/april/regaining-proper-hearing-at-last.html

Deaf FAQ

2013-03-09T21:34:00.001-05:00

I know there are countless versions of this elsewhere, but here is mine:

What do I call you?

· Deaf

· Hard of Hearing

· Deaf and dumb (extremely rude, equivalent to the “N” word)

· Deaf mute (rude/ignorant)

· Hearing-impaired (well-meaning, but rude)

Clarity matters more than volume

It does not help to yell or talk really slowly or animated. Speak clearly and normally at an acceptable volume. Clarity is far more important than super loud volume. Most importantly, face me.

Why can’t you understand me well?

People with accents are extremely difficult to understand for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing folks. Also, men and women may be easier or more difficult to understand. Background noise, especially other voices, makes it virtually impossible to understand someone.

“But you speak so well”

Thank you, but I don’t have problems with my vocal cords—I have problems with my ears. Just because I speak well does not mean I can hear or understand you.

The room matters

Small, quiet rooms offer the best possibility of being understood. One-on-one or very small groups of people are best. One person talking at a time, please.

Your hearing changes?

Everyone’s hearing changes day to day, and within a day. It’s such a small change most people don’t notice. It’s a huge difference when some or most of your hearing is gone, though. If I’m really tired or have been listening intently for a long time, my ability to hear dramatically decreases.

Context matters

If I know what we’re talking about already, I may be able to fill in gaps when I miss words. I may also be able to lipread a little if I am familiar with you.

Can you hear that?

I don’t walk around with an eye chart testing everyone with glasses. It’s a bit annoying to get hearing tested several times a day. It’s safe to assume I don’t hear it…

Switched at Birth - Deaf cannot afford to blow chances

2013-01-08T19:13:00.002-05:00

Last night's episode of Switched at Birth was particularly brave in pointing out what is an obvious fact to many, but some might choose to ignore: Deaf cannot afford to blow good chances in life.

To be fair, we could easily substitute dozens of other words in place of Deaf, and the sentence still holds true. Some great examples include women in corporate America, minorities in certain situations, physically handicapped, etc etc etc. Sure, nobody likes to face the truth when it's ugly, but discrimination still exists, even when it's not blatant, and sometimes we have to work harder than everyone else just to stay afloat.

I'm really happy with the writers and I hope they continue to find good topics to expose truth, educate ignorance, and overall make our lives easier.

I actually LIKED the Saturday Night Live ASL skit

2012-11-06T10:15:00.000-05:00

I think there is a world of difference between what was done by Chelsea Lately and SNL.

Chelsea made fun of something she was entirely ignorant about, thus truly insulting Deaf and our language. I think she got what she deserved when people erupted against her. I think she owes an apology for being rude.

SNL, on the other hand, showed a very playful nature, and I think they did a parody in good humor and with a fair amount of knowledge. I found the ASL part pretty funny, the Italian party absolutely hilarious, and the Spanish part really funny too. It's just my opinion, but I think if you're offended by the SNL skit, you may want to grow thicker skin and laugh along.

I'm open to comments as to why it was insulting. Marlee's opinion carried no weight with me, though.

World got even quieter...

2012-08-31T16:20:00.003-04:00

Well I guess it's time to get back in for an adjustment. I graphed my audiograms over the years.

Regal Captioned Movies via Sony Glasses - Followup

2012-08-05T20:12:00.001-04:00

I went to see Dark Knight Rises tonight, so I got to use the caption glasses again. This time armed with the information from my last post, I adjusted them and got even better performance from them.

The little box thing that the glasses plug into has three buttons: the middle button is "menu" and then a + and - button. I pressed menu and adjusted the brightness of the captions to where I wanted them. Then I pressed menu again and was able to adjust the captions "near", "mid", or "far". This was really wonderful and solved my major complaint from last time. My vision is normal, but setting the captions to "far" meant that the captions were much closer to the screen in terms of focusing my eyes to see the movie or the captions (set to near, it feels more like changing focus from he movie screen to a mobile phone in your hand, which caused me fatigue my first time).

The only remaining complaint focuses around the weight of the glasses. They aren't particularly heavy, but towards the end of the movies, my nose has been quite sore. I wear glass sunglasses and they don't bother me over long periods, so it's not just me.

I did ask the ticket seller how many glasses they had. He said about 4 pairs. So unfortunately big groups of Deafies won't be going together, which kind of sucks. Hopefully the theaters get more, but still most theaters don't have any, and Regal has committed to all theaters nationwide.

5 years of ASL classes - DONE!

2012-05-15T22:19:00.000-04:00

I simply cannot believe that five years has blown by like a freight train. It seems like yesterday I walked into that beginning class and took like 2 minutes to finger spell my 5-letter name.

It has been a wonderful experience, and I have met some people I hope to know the rest of my life. Even after five years, I still feel like somewhat of a noob. I guess I have to keep remembering that many of the people I meet have been signing all or most of their lives. Nonetheless, I am ultimately thankful for my new ability to successfully use an interpreter!

I hope I can attend, or even help set up some more local casual events. There don't seem to be many right now, and it would be great to use my ASL more with fluent signers.

Regal Captions All Movies With Special Glasses - A Review

2012-05-14T17:58:00.002-04:00

Regal has been busy working on equal access to movies! I have heard it is their plan to roll closed-captioning for every showtime of every movie to all of their theaters. My local theaters already have this functionality, so I decided to test drive it and go see Avengers.

Upon arrival, you will need to stand in line with the rest of the world, since the ticket kiosks cannot distribute the glasses. I exchanged my driver license for some fancy Sony glasses.

Click here to see a picture a detailed specs on the glasses

So first things first. The glasses really work! Captions are clear, and I discovered halfway through the movie that I could adjust the position of the captions vertically (I initially needed to wear the glasses way down on my nose to get them where I wanted them).

When looking at the screen, the captions are bright green and pretty clear. They aren't too big or too small. It's kind of a weird feeling, if you're used to captions, because the captions move with your head. For example, I could face the side wall of the theater and still have captions. I removed the glasses during the movie and looked at them from all angles, and I was unable to detect any light sources, so these aren't going to bother other movie-goers.

Now for the areas they could be improved. They definitely feel bulky, and even at only 3 ounces, they felt very heavy by the end of the movie! Sony claims that a removable attachment makes them 3D capable, but Regal doesn't have any 3D movies captioned yet, no sure why. Finally, since these are almost guaranteed NOT to fit over a normal pair of glasses, I don't see how they could be used by someone with vision problems bad enough to not be able to watch a movie without their glasses.

One slightly annoying characteristic, is that the captions are not on the same focal plane as the movie. What I mean by this, is that unlike normal captions/subtitles that appear ON the screen, these float in space much "closer" to your face than the screen. So you have to switch focus quickly and often. Imagine holding your hand one foot from your face, and switching focus from your hand to the screen for every sentence. Eye fatigue!

Overall, a great success brought to you by the folks at Sony and Regal. I can't wait to see the future products that will b made possible by refining this technology, or finding a better way!

First time using an ASL interpreter = WOW! (late-deaf)

2012-03-29T15:16:00.001-04:00

I had an important meeting this week. The meeting room is huge, and what sound doesn't "disappear" turns into echoes. To make matters worse, I knew for a fact there would be soft-spoken people present, as well as people with strong foreign accents. So I decided to bite the bullet and use an interpreter for my first time ever.

I have to admit, I was a bit anxious about this whole ordeal. Probably more of a "fear of the unknown" thing, but nonetheless not an easy thing to come to grips with. I worried about my ASL proficiency not being quite good enough. I worried about being able to pay attention both to the faces/emotions of the people speaking as well as the interpreter. Overall, I must say that my fears in this case were completely unfounded. It was wonderful to sit through a meeting and not wonder what I missed when "that person" was talking and I couldn't hear and/or understand them.

I hope all future interpreter situations are as easy as this one!