ITHACA, NY/DAVIS, CA—Funded by federal grants, universities in New York and California are launching innovative programs to better serve the needs of people in their area with hearing loss.
Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY, is partnering with Rochester [NY] Institute of Technology (RIT) and Camden County College in New Jersey, to provide online support for deaf and hard-of-hearing students majoring in science, technology, engineering, or math. The project is supported by a $1.6 million, 5-year grant from the National Science Foundation’s Research in Disability Education program.
Cornell, which has eight students with hearing loss studying technology, engineering, or math, will test the use of a cyber infrastructure to provide remote support for these students. Currently, interpreters accompany the students to their classes where they provide captioning on laptops. However, a computer link could enable interpreters to provide this service remotely.
The creators of this pilot project envision the development of an online community to provide remote tutoring and mentoring on a broad scale. If the project proves viable at the college level, it could then be expanded to high schools.
The Center on Access Technology at RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf will administer the project. According to the center, there are more than 30,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing students studying at colleges across the country.
TELE-AUDIOLOGY FOR KIDS
A pilot project at the University of California, Davis, also involves reaching out in new ways to young people with hearing loss. The Davis program, which is funded by a three-year, $354,242 grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau, will use remote technology to bring audiologic care to infants in need of early invention.
The tele-audiology program is designed to make sure that infants who have been identified as being deaf or hard of hearing actually receive treatment that will allow them to develop age-appropriate speech and language skills.
Nationwide, one of the greatest challenges facing universal newborn hearing screening programs is to prevent infants who do not pass the screen from being lost to follow-up. In the rural area of Northern California, where many infants and their families live far from any audiology clinic, the state estimates that about 40% of newborns identified as needing care in 2007 did not receive it. That’s about five times the “lost-to-follow-up” rate reported in California overall.
This program, which will be administered by California’s Department of Health Care Services, will make it possible for pediatric patients in northern California to undergo audiology testing at Mercy Medical Center in Redding. This center is located in the region where follow up has been a problem. However, it doesn’t have the resources required to provide the follow up that these children need.
That’s where the remote technology kicks in. While the children will be able to go to a hospital close to home, the testing they receive will be conducted via a telemedicine hookup by a pediatric audiologist at the UC Davis Health System in Sacramento.
In a press release, James Marcin, director of the UC Davis Pediatric Telemedicine Program, said, “We are very, very excited about providing this program… With this model, and with Redding being a very central location for families in northern California, we hope to eventually eliminate the lost-to-follow-up rate and provide the excellent care that these infants and their families deserve.”
