Hearing News Watch

WASHINGTON, DC—The Fit to Serve campaign, designed to allow and encourage the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to hire licensed hearing aid specialists to treat veterans with hearing loss, got a boost when U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) announced on May 8 that he would sponsor the Veterans Hearing Aid Access and Assistance Act (S. 564). The measure is

  ST. GEORGE, UTAH—After running 250 miles over eight days through wind and cold, hail and snow, up steep mountain roads that reached nearly 8000 feet in altitude, a physically and emotionally spent Justin Osmond crossed the finish line in St. George on Saturday, May 9, arms raised in triumph. There to meet the celebrated advocate for people with hearing

  SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA—The consumer electronics titan Samsung is making plans that could shake up the hearing aid industry, according to a report published April 27 in the online publication BusinessKorea. After watching the successes of the partnerships that its industry rival Apple has forged with GN ReSound and Starkey Hearing Technologies, Samsung appears ready to invest in the hearing aid industry. The entrance

    By David H. Kirkwood SAN FRANCISCO—For decades, advertising, especially television and print campaigns aimed at a broad national audience, has been an accurate barometer of public attitudes in America toward various minority groups. In casting models and actors—or selecting “real people” to appear as themselves—for ads, agencies try to present people that the target audience can relate to.

  By David H. Kirkwood HOUSTON—David Eagleman, PhD, and his graduate student Scott Novich at Baylor College of Medicine are working alongside a team of engineering undergraduates at Rice University to develop a high-tech garment known as the VEST (Versatile Extra-Sensory Transducer) that would enable people who are deaf in both ears to understand speech by feeling vibrations rather than

NEW YORK–Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931), widely regarded as America’s greatest inventor, managed to create the first practical incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, the carbon microphone used in telephones until the 1980s, among the earliest motion picture cameras and viewing devices, the stock ticker, and countless other innovations, despite suffering from severe hearing loss since early childhood. His disability, which is

By David H. Kirkwood WASHINGTON, DC—As part of an ambitious, two-year study to identify ways to make hearing health care (HHC) for adults more accessible and affordable, a 13-member ad hoc committee of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) will hold a daylong open session on Monday, April 27. IOM, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is an

    COPENHAGEN–GN ReSound, which last February became the first manufacturer to offer a hearing aid, the ReSound LiNX, that allowed wearers to stream audio directly from their Apple iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to their hearing aid without need for a separate intermediary device, has introduced a new hearing aid app designed specifically for Apple’s latest high-tech device, the Apple

    By David H. Kirkwood WASHINGTON, DC–The portion of Americans with self-reported hearing difficulty who own hearing aids has increased to 30.2% (from 24.8% in 2008), and the satisfaction rate with hearing aids has grown to 81% from 74%, according to the MarkeTrak 9 survey conducted last fall by Az Marketing Research with Online Survey Solution for the Better

    By David H. Kirkwood WASHINGTON, DC—Since its enactment in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has made public accommodations, telecommunications technology, and the workplace more accessible to countless people with hearing loss. For example, just last month, the New York Police Department, following the lead of departments around the country, opened its doors to police officers who