James Jerger
By David H. Kirkwood
No one has done more to advance the field of audiology over the past half century than James Jerger. As a researcher, writer/editor, teacher, and founding president of the American Academy of Audiology, Jerger has played an outsized role in shaping the history of audiology and in preparing the profession to meet the needs of the 21st century.
That’s why when our blog, Hearing Health & Technology Matters (HHTM), had the unprecedented opportunity to publish an extensive passage from Jerger’s book, Audiology in the USA, online we seized it. With the permission of the book’s publisher, Plural Publishing, Wayne Staab has posted a 10-page section on rehabilitation from the book on Wayne’s World, his blog at HHMT.
Here, Jerger presents a fascinating and fast-moving chronicle of hearing aids from the carbon granule devices of 1902 through today’s advanced digital instruments. The Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, also recounts the development of real-ear measurements, the discovery of the phenomenon of auditory deprivation, and the invention of outcome measures to determine patient benefit. Especially interesting are the portraits Jerger paints of some of the men and women who made important contributions to audiology.
As Wayne Staab states on his blog, HHTM is honored to have the privilege of being the first to publish a chapter from Audiology in the USA on the Internet. To read it, visit Wayne’s World.
To purchase the book, contact Plural Publishing.
