PROHIERAN Blog » Hearing http://blog.prohieran.net All Natural Hearing Wellness Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:31:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.1 en hourly 1 Legislation introduced to help ensure people with disabilities with access to Internet-based telecommunications http://blog.prohieran.net/07/legislation-introduced-to-help-ensure-people-with-disabilities-with-access-to-internet-based-telecommunications/ http://blog.prohieran.net/07/legislation-introduced-to-help-ensure-people-with-disabilities-with-access-to-internet-based-telecommunications/#comments Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:46:01 +0000 Prohieran http://blog.prohieran.net/07/legislation-introduced-to-help-ensure-people-with-disabilities-with-access-to-internet-based-telecommunications/ capitol.jpgU.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) has introduced comprehensive legislation to ensure that people with disabilities have access to Internet-based telecommunications and video programming technologies. The bill, the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009 (H.R. 3101), is referred to as the COAT bill. Organizations for people with hearing loss are actively supportive of the bill, and are urging people to contact their representatives and urge support of it. The bill’s current status, according to WashingtonWash.com, is that the bill has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

As written, the bill would:

  • require that mobile and other Internet-based telecommunications devices and equipment be fully hearing aid compatible, have accessible user interfaces, and offer people with disabilities use of a full range of text messaging and other popular services that are currently largely inaccessible;
  • provide people who are deaf-blind with vital but costly technologies they need to communicate electronically;
  • establish a process and time table for the provision of real-time text capability;
  • clarify existing relay-to-relay, Lifeline and Linkup service requirements to ensure their relevance to the real world communications needs of people with disabilities;
  • restore the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) modest video description rules and unambiguously establish the FCC’s current and ongoing authority to expand such regulations;
  • require emergency announcements and similar information to be accessible to people with disabilities through audible presentation of on-screen alerts;
  • ensure that video programming offered via the Internet will be both captioned and described;
  • call for all devices that receive and playback video programming to employ accessible user interfaces and allow ready access to captioning and description;
  • strengthen consumers’ ability to enforce their rights to communications and video accessibility through the establishment of a clearinghouse of information about service and equipment accessibility and usability, a meaningful FCC complaint process that holds industry accountable for their accessibility obligations, and judicial review of FCC action to ensure FCC accountability.

What are your thoughts about the bill? Let us know the comments below.

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]]> http://blog.prohieran.net/07/legislation-introduced-to-help-ensure-people-with-disabilities-with-access-to-internet-based-telecommunications/feed/ 1 Right-Eared Hearing Preference is Normal http://blog.prohieran.net/07/right-eared-hearing-preference-is-normal/ http://blog.prohieran.net/07/right-eared-hearing-preference-is-normal/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:40:47 +0000 Prohieran http://blog.prohieran.net/07/right-eared-hearing-preference-is-normal/ i-cant-hear-you.jpgMost of us have are either left-handed or right-handed, have a particular eye dominance, and will choose one foot over another repeatedly when kicking a ball. But most people haven’t thought of having a preferred ear from which to hear — until recently.

A recent Italian study claims that individuals are more likely to perform a task when information is received in the right ear than the left. Researchers conducted three studies looking at ear preference in communications between people, especially in noisy social situations, and found a natural side bias. Right-ear dominance is believed to reflect the brain’s left hemisphere which features the processors for verbal information. According to researchers, the findings indicate an advantage for human understanding and compliance to tasks or instructions when information is received in the right ear only vs. the left. This doesn’t apply to normal conversations when persons are spoken to in a normal, face-to-face setting, but rather situations call for conversations directed to a person’s particular ear.

Next time you are in a noisy setting or need to discreetly tell someone something, you may wish to choose to deliver the information in the right ear for the best overall chance of hearing success.

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]]> http://blog.prohieran.net/07/right-eared-hearing-preference-is-normal/feed/ 0 “How Do We Hear?” – In Plain English http://blog.prohieran.net/06/how-do-we-hear-in-plain-english/ http://blog.prohieran.net/06/how-do-we-hear-in-plain-english/#comments Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:29:31 +0000 Prohieran http://blog.prohieran.net/06/how-do-we-hear-in-plain-english/ The-Human-Ear.jpgOur ears are complex sensory organs. They pick up all the sounds around us and then transfer it into sound waves our brains can translate and understand. What makes ears so extraordinary is that the hearing process in general is mechanical and is based solely on physical movement. This compares with our sense of taste, smell, or sight, which involves chemical reactions.

So, how do our ears hear sound anyway? First, you need to understand what sound really is. Textbook definitions describe the hearing process as sound being produced when it vibrates in matter. This can be a solid or a liquid. Most often, we hear sounds traveling through the air (liquid) in our atmosphere. When something vibrates, it moves the surrounding air particles, and carries the pulse of the vibration. We hear different sounds because of the variations in the sound wave frequency. Translated, we hear things by pitch and amplitude.

So, to hear sound, our ears must direct the sound waves into the hearing part of the ear, sense fluctuations in air pressure, and then translate these fluctuations into a signal that our brains can translate. Our brains can recognize distinctive sound patterns and are also able to determine whether the sound is coming from the front, side, behind, above, or below.

While all parts of our ears perform a vital function for hearing, the ear drum (the tympanic membrane) is considered the core sensory element. The rest of the ear serves to pass along information gathered there. The ear drum is positioned between the ear canal and the middle ear. Since air flows in from your outer ear as well as your mouth, the pressure on both sides of the eardrum remains equal. Infections, injuries or other ailments can greatly affect the pressure, causing various hearing symptoms to occur.

Why is all this important? The ear is quite sensitive and is an extraordinary organ that involves a complex process for the achievement of normal hearing. Care and attention to hearing is needed to ensure the proper function of our ear. Consider an all-natural supplement like ProHieran: a sound approach to hearing wellness.

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