Hearing Informed

A typical earplug from Walgreen’s squelches so much sound that I don’t really enjoy concerts with them. Most earplugs are made of high density foam that muffle speech and music- they reduce sound more in the high frequencies (that I really need) than the mid and low frequencies, which makes the sound unnatural and unclear.

Hearing loss is a function of exposure time, average sound level, and the peak level of very loud sounds. To make things more complex- every person reacts a little differently to loud sounds and some people are more susceptible to hearing loss than others. However, most earplugs, when used for concerts, are overkill. They kill a lot more sound than necessary for hearing protection. The solution? I love my musicians earplugs from Etymotic Research. I can switch out little replacement buttons that change the amount of decibel protection to suit the situation. I find that the 25 decibel button works great for loud concerts and and I can hear a LOT more than I did with the typical store bought ones. The cost of $150 might be considered a bit steep- but its not all that much when you consider your protecting your hearing and having a great sound experience. Also- buying replaceable earplugs all the time will surely add up.

In the bay area I really appreciate the small concert halls that give a nice full sound without hurting my ears. My favorites: Yoshi’s in Oakland and San Francisco and The Kuumbwa in Santa Cruz.

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The 2007 biannual World Deaf Surfing Championships went down in Miyazaki of southern Japan. A nearby typhoon generated short-interval, dumping two- to four-footers for the duration of the event, but strong onshore winds and intermittent rains made for some challenging conditions for competitors from all over the world. The next World Deaf Surfing Championships will be held in 2009 in Hawaii. For more information and pictures, see deafsurf.org.

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Got your attention? Kathryn Hill, based out of San Francisco, runs a great deaf blog called Stone Deaf Pilots–In a post from a while ago she mentions a deaf owned porn company, DeafBunny. They found a hole in the pornography industry and they aim to fill it. The movies feature deaf actors that communicate with each other in American Sign Language. All the movies come with subtitles. They have one movie so far: Naughty Deaf Roomates.

Paul Davies, a reporter from the Wall Street Journal, wrote an article in which he argues that cochlear implants are transforming deaf eduction.

He points out that cochlear implants have been around for two decades. However, it was only seven years ago (and five from when the article was written) that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the devices for use in children as young as 12 months. A child who receives cochlear implants at such a young age has an exponentially larger potential to take on spoken language. Davies goes on to say that “now a new generation of children is entering deaf schools with the hope that they may someday hear and speak almost as naturally as those without hearing problems.” I would add the important delineation that these are really the “hopes” of the parents.

He goes on to say that supporters of the venerable culture of the Deaf believe that deaf children should get a strong grounding in American Sign Language so that they can participate fully in that culture when they grow up. But others- including some deaf kid’s parents who can hear- want more emphasis on hearing and speaking English to prepare the children for life in the “mainstream world”. There is a contentious debate that is ongoing in deaf culture around these issues.

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