HHTM

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – Global coffee giant, Starbucks, has announced that it will be opening a café in Malaysia that is dedicated to employing baristas who are Deaf or hard of hearing.The new café will be open to all customers, not just the Deaf and hard of hearing community. In what is likely a first for a major company in

COLUMBUS, OHIO – Individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing will be allowed the chance to obtain their Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) in the state of Ohio. The state has become one of the first to do so since the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) instituted a hearing exemption waiver. For years the FMCSA has relied on individuals

DETROIT, MICHIGAN — A new communication tool has been released by the Michigan Department of Civil Rights (MDCR) that aims to improve communication between law enforcement and people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The new tool, which has received support by the state’s major law enforcement organizations, is a card that is designed to be placed on a

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – In May it was reported that Abano Healthcare Group had received an unsolicited offer to purchase the company’s 50% stake in Bay International, a retail network of audiology clinics across Australia and southeast Asia, from an undisclosed “international hearing device manufacturer”. The offer, approximately $32 million NZ (approximately $22.7 million US), is nearly three times the

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Joshua Miller, a licensed New York hearing aid dispenser and owner of Syracuse Hearing Aid Centers, LLC, has plead guilty to first and second degree grand larceny. Miller will now spend the next 4 to 12 years in prison for his crimes. In November 2015, Miller was indicted by a grand jury on charges that he was

Swiss-based hearing aid manufacturer, Phonak, has announced that it will soon be launching a new hearing aid platform Belong, which will include rechargeable lithium-ion technology. The new recharging technology will be included in Phonak’s upcoming Audeo B-R Receiver-in-Canal (RIC) product line. While rechargeable batteries themselves are certainly not new to hearing aids, the use of lithium-ion technology is. Citing the

WASHINGTON, DC — The US Department of Defense reports that half of all troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from some degree of permanent hearing loss. A National Public Radio (NPR) broadcast on June 3 featured the development and deployment of a smart hearing protection system, called Tactical Communication and Protective System (or TCAPS). Currently, 20,000 TCAPS are being

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK — After seeing two of its biggest competitors make major acquisitions in recent months, hearing aid maker William Demant is seeking ways to minimize the impact on its global sales. According to a June 8 Reuters article by Ole Mikkelsen, the company (which owns major hearing aid brands Oticon, Bernafon and Sonic Innovations) says it “will not hesitate” to purchase retail chains if

A review on the association between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and hearing impairment (HI) was recently published in the Open Rheumatology Journal and highlighted that patients with RA are at a higher risk during the course of their disease. The review was carried out by researchers from the Odense University Hospital in Denmark. They performed a comprehensive search of all specialized

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA — Tech industry titan, Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), was awarded a patent this week by the US Trademark Office for a headset that utilizes bone conduction to deliver improved hearing in the presence of ambient noise. The patent, #9,363,596, was originally filed in 2013. The earphone device uses an accelerometer-based voice activation detection and microphone array, which measures