Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH)













Blindness separates you from objects, Sound separates you from people 

- Helen Keller, who was deafblind

The problems of deafness are deeper and more complex, if not more important, than those of blindness. Deafness is a much worse misfortune. For it means the loss of the most vital stimulus - the sound of the voice that brings language, sets thoughts astir and keeps us in the intellectual company of man.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing (DHH)

The Deaf & Hard of Hearing Section of the DEEPAK: NDLI Disability Knowledge Portal presents extensive information on all aspects of the life of persons with deafness or hearing impairment. This is divided into eight subsections (detailed below). The focus has been kept on Education, Employment, and Training through first three subsections. Caregiving including support services and Institutions dealing with blindness are covered next. Assistive Technology and Android & iOS Apps have become critical assistance in all the activities. These are covered in the following two subsections. Last but not the least, the story of few Achievers, who have excelled in spite of all odds of disability and attitude of the society at large are chronicled as a documentation for achievements of human will.

While the portal is primarily designed for persons with deafness or hearing impairment in India, it does cover a lot of information in respect of science, technology, history, and practices that are agnostic to geographic and political boundary.

How do we hear?

Hearing Loss

Deafness is an invisible disability

Hearing loss is a partial or total inability to hear. Hearing loss may be present at birth or acquired at any time afterwards. Hearing loss may occur in one or both ears. In children, hearing problems can affect the ability to acquire spoken language, and in adults it can create difficulties with social interaction and at work. Hearing loss can be temporary or permanent.

Hearing loss related to age usually affects both ears and is due to cochlear hair cell loss. In some people, particularly older people, hearing loss can result in loneliness. Deaf people usually have little to no hearing.

Hearing loss may be caused by a number of factors, including: genetics, ageing, exposure to noise, some infections, birth complications, trauma to the ear, and certain medications or toxins. A common condition that results in hearing loss is chronic ear infections. Certain infections during pregnancy, such as cytomegalovirus, syphilis and rubella, may also cause hearing loss in the child. 

Hearing loss is diagnosed when hearing testing finds that a person is unable to hear 25 decibels in at least one ear. Testing for poor hearing is recommended for all newborns. Hearing loss can be categorized as mild (25-40 dB), moderate (41-55 dB), moderate-severe (56-70 dB), severe (71-90 dB), or profound (> 90 dB). 

Types of hearing loss

The type of hearing loss is usually determined by where the issue arises anatomically in the ear (inner, middle or outer ear). There are three categories commonly used to distinguish hearing loss by origin:

Prevention

About half of hearing loss globally is preventable through public health measures. Such practices include immunization, proper care around pregnancy, avoiding loud noise, and avoiding certain medications. The World Health Organization recommends that young people limit exposure to loud sounds and the use of personal audio players to an hour a day in an effort to limit exposure to noise.

Remedial Measures

Early identification and support are particularly important in children. For many, hearing aids, sign language, cochlear implants and subtitles are useful. Lip reading is another useful skill some develop. Access to hearing aids, however, is limited in many areas of the world.

Source: Hearing loss, Wikipedia

Models of Deafness

The model through which the deaf person is viewed can impact how they are treated as well as their own self perception. There are three models of deafness rooted in either social or biological sciences. These are

Source: Models of Deafness, Wikipedia

International Symbol for Deafness

Hearing Test

A hearing testing provides an evaluation of the sensitivity of a person's sense of hearing and is most often performed by an audiologist using an audiometer. An audiometer is used to determine a person's hearing sensitivity at different frequencies. There are other hearing tests like Weber test and Rinne test. 

Hearing Loss Categories

Hearing loss is diagnosed when hearing testing finds that a person is unable to hear 25 decibels in at least one ear. 

Hearing loss is categorized as:

Ten facts about hearing loss you should know

Fact 1: There are around 360 million people with disabling hearing loss.

Fact 2: Unaddressed hearing loss poses a global cost of $750 billion international dollars.

Fact 3: Thirty-two million children have disabling hearing loss.

Fact 4: Chronic ear infections are the leading cause of hearing loss.

Fact 5: Nearly one in every three people over 65 years are affected by disabling hearing loss.

Fact 6: Noise is a major avoidable cause of hearing loss.

Fact 7: Hearing loss can be caused by occupational noise and the use ototoxic medications.

Fact 8: People with hearing loss can benefit from devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants.

Fact 9: Sign language and captioning services facilitate communication with people who are deaf and hard of hearing.

Fact 10: Sixty per cent of childhood hearing loss is preventable through public health actions.

Key facts from WHO

Over 5% of the world’s population – or 430 million people – require rehabilitation to address their ‘disabling’ hearing loss (432 million adults and 34 million children). It is estimated that by 2050 over 700 million people – or one in every ten people – will have disabling hearing loss.

‘Disabling’ hearing loss refers to hearing loss greater than 35 decibels (dB) in the better hearing ear. Nearly 80% of people with disabling hearing loss live in low- and middle-income countries. The prevalence of hearing loss increases with age, among those older than 60 years, over 25% are affected by disabling hearing loss. 

Hearing loss and deafness

A person who is not able to hear as well as someone with normal hearing – hearing thresholds of 20 dB or better in both ears – is said to have hearing loss. Hearing loss may be mild, moderate, severe, or profound. It can affect one ear or both ears, and leads to difficulty in hearing conversational speech or loud sounds.

'Hard of hearing' refers to people with hearing loss ranging from mild to severe. People who are hard of hearing usually communicate through spoken language and can benefit from hearing aids, cochlear implants, and other assistive devices as well as captioning.

'Deaf' people mostly have profound hearing loss, which implies very little or no hearing. They often use sign language for communication.

Causes of hearing loss and deafness

Although these factors can be encountered at different periods across the life span, individuals are most susceptible to their effects during critical periods in life.

Prenatal Period

Perinatal period

Childhood and adolescence 

Adulthood and older age 

Factors across the life span 

The impact of unaddressed hearing loss

When unaddressed, hearing loss impacts many aspects of life at individual level:

Social isolation, loneliness and stigma

Impact on society and economy

Prevention

Many of the causes that lead to hearing loss can be avoided through public health strategies and clinical interventions implemented across the life course.

Prevention of hearing loss is essential throughout the life course – from prenatal and perinatal periods to older age. In children, nearly 60% of hearing loss is due to avoidable causes that can be prevented through implementation of public health measures. Likewise, in adults, most common causes of hearing loss, such as exposure to loud sounds and ototoxic medicines, are preventable.

Effective strategies for reducing hearing loss at different stages of the life course include: 

Identification and management

WHO response

Source: Deafness and hearing loss: Key Facts, WHO, 2021

Early Schools 1900's

Major Training Colleges for Teachers of the Deaf

Deaf Education in India

The Deaf were generally considered uneducable and lived on charity or were taken care of by the joint family system. The first attempt at systematic education was undertaken at Mazagaon in the then Bombay Presidency in 1884 by a Roman Catholic Mission.

The laurels go to Dr. De Haerne for conceiving the idea of a school for the deaf in 1882. He sought the help of Lord Ripen for establishing a school for the deaf and succeeded. His attempts turned fruitful and Bombay Institute for the Deaf Mutes was founded in 1885 by Dr. Leo Meurin, the then Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bombay with Re. Fr. Goldsmith as its Principal. T. A. Walsh, with over 20 years experience in Ireland and Belgium, rendered his services as a fully qualified teacher

Next, the Calcutta Deaf & Dumb School (CDDS) was established in 1893 in the Eastern Zone by Babu Jamininath Banerjee (1869-1921) who served as its first Principal. He had an opportunity to be trained at the National College of Teachers of the Deaf, London, England and in Gallaudet College in USA. He was the pioneer in starting the Teacher Training Programme for the teachers of the deaf in India, and this served as the only training centre in our country. A C. Chatterjee & S. N. Banerjee succeeded as second and third principal of CDDS & Teacher Training Department. 

February 1896 saw the establishment of Florence Swainson School for the Deaf at Palamcottai, South India, by Ms. Floerence Swainson, a missionary from Zenana Missionary Society, Church of England. In 1895, Ms. Swainson, working at Sarah Tucker Institution, Palayamkottai got the divine inspiration to start this ministry for the Deaf children in South India. Initially, She found a class with three Deaf children in the campus of Sarah Tucker Institution. Within a couple of years, she purchased the large site of 14 acres with the money gifted by her friends in England and shifted the school to the present campus. 

By the time India became independent in 1947, there were 38 schools for the deaf. Except for the Nagpur School, the teachers in other schools were trained at the Calcutta Deaf & Dumb School (CDDS). A notable feature of this period was that, in 1935 the Convention of the Teachers of the Deaf had come up on the lines of the Convention of the American Instructors of the Deaf with the objectives:

Post-Independence Scenario

Since the attainment of Independence, the schools for the deaf continued to be organized by voluntary agencies. The Central Government and the State Governments gradually started paying increasing attention to education as a vital factor to national progress. Article 45 of the Constitution emphasizes that the State shall provide free and compulsory education for all up to the age of 14. Article 46 states that "The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of all the weaker sections of the people and shall protect them from social injustice and from all forms of exploitation.

All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH) was established on 9th August, 1965 in Mysore. This Institute contributed a lot by starting manpower development courses in the field of Audiology and Speech Therapy. Similarly, a course was started at B.Y.L. Nair Hospital, Bombay in July, 1966. AIISH has contributed in early identification, fitting of hearing aids, giving speech therapy, conducting the camps, identifying the hearing handicapped, guiding and counselling the deaf and their parents for follow up action, etc. 

International Year of the Disabled 1981 was celebrated throughout the country. These celebrations improved public awareness enormously. The number of institutes for the hearing impaired increased from 100 to 350.

In 1983, Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped (AYJNIHH) was started under the Ministry of Welfare, Government of India as an apex body for the hearing handicapped. It is located at Bombay and its Regional Centers are in New Delhi, Hyderabad and Calcutta, and a state collaborated centre in Bhubaneshwar. They have taken up large scale manpower development, research, training, early identification, assessment etc.

Most of the special schools for the deaf impart education up to the primary level only. Very few schools in cities like Bombay, Madras, Delhi, Calcutta etc. give education up to Std. X. Two schools in Madras are offering education up to Std. XII. In 1974, the Central Government introduced a scheme called 'Integrated Education of Disabled Children', in normal schools. 

University Education: Though there have been cases of individual deaf students pursuing university education in India and outside India, the first post-secondary (pre-university or +2) course for the deaf was started at Little Flower School, Madras. The first college for the deaf (Arts & Commerce) was started in 1993 at St. Louis College for the Deaf, University of Madras. 

Teacher Training Programmes

The educational programmes for the deaf are successful only if there are sufficient number of trained teachers of the deaf. The first training centre for the teachers of the deaf was established in Calcutta in 1986. Later Training Centres for the teachers of the Deaf were started in Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Madras, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Bombay. Some of the major Training Colleges for Teachers of the Deaf are listed in the left panel.

It was the setting up of AYJNIHH in Mumbai in 1983 that gave an impetus to the Teacher Training Programmes and other technical services for the deaf in the country. Presently there are more than 30 teacher training centres for the deaf in the country. For the first time in India, on an average, nearly 500 teachers of the deaf pass out of these institutions every year with D.Ed (HI); B.Ed (HI) and M.Ed. (HI) degrees.

Government Initiatives

Over the past few decades Government of India has been taking various initiatives for the Education and Employment of Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Mute through Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities in the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Labour and Employment, and several others. Different ministries in various State Governments are also supporting Deaf Education and Employment in various ways.

Major initiatives include the setting up of National and Regional Institutions for education, vocational training and rehabilitation; enactment of important acts; and introduction of several policies. It has also facilitated the operations of several NGOs in this area of work and the functioning of special schools in different states. 

Sources:

Pioneers in Education of the Hearing Impaired

The stalwarts who worked in the deaf organisations and rendered enormous services for the welfare of the deaf were Dr Shilandernath Banerjee, Shri A.C. Sen, Shri T.C. Das, Shri B.K. Chakravarty, Shri Evelyan Khan, Shri T.P. Kuppu Swamy, to name a few. They also conducted seminars, exhibitions and educational get-togethers. To create public awareness and to focus the needs and problems of deaf-mutes, they had published a magazine "The Deaf in India" under the editorship of Late A.C. Sen for many years with a subsidy from the Ministry of Education, Government of India. The articles were contributed by eminent scholars like Dr. P.T. Kerridge, Dr. I.R. Ewing and Mr A.W. Ewing of Victoria University. Some professors from American universities added lustre to the journal. This was the prime instrument to exchange views and clarify doubts on academic questions for the teachers of the deaf. Apart from this academic purpose, it also served as an instrument to catch the eye of the government as well as the public in the cause of the deaf.

Some of the other known pioneers in the field of rehabilitation and education of the hearing impaired in India were: Shri Jamininath Banerjee, Founder - CDDS; Shri Umesh Chandra Dutt; Shri Atal Chand Chatterjee; Ms. Mohini Mohan Majumdhar; Bholanath Ghatak; Kalidas Battacharjee; Narendra Kr. Basu; Dr Pradhan Bose; Dr Harisadhan Dutt; Mr CW Bolton; Fr. F.J. Rowe; Mrs. Elizebeth Morgan; Nirmal Chand Chaturvedi; Shaligram Chaturvedi; B.H. Gandhi and R.C. Sen.

After the second World War, the school for the deaf in Lucknow was entrusted with a new responsibility of providing vocational education to the war-deafened soldiers. By 1948, most of them were rehabilitated after the successful completion of vocational training. Thus, between 1940 and 1948, the country saw unusual developments in the area of the education of the deaf. This was the time when the country was confronted by the world war. Struggle for independence and communal riots following separation of India and Pakistan affected the movement

Protecting and Interpreting Deaf Culture | Glenna Cooper | TEDxTulsaCC, TEDx Talks, 2017

Deaf advocate Glenna Cooper shares her personal journey as a Deaf child of hearing parents who were told to avoid teaching their daughter sign language. Glenna shares insight into Deaf culture, including why it's not considered rude to tell someone their new hairstyle isn't flattering.

Glenna Cooper is Assistant Professor and Department Chair for American Sign Language Education, English As Second Language, and World Language at Tulsa Community College. She was one of a few Deaf nationally certified instructors to provide Deaf Culture training to emergency responders in 40 states. 

Although she is Deaf, ASL was not her first language. Instead, she learned to speak and lipread English first which presented many challenges. 

Bridging the gap between the deaf and hearing community. | Roos Wattel | TEDxAmsterdamWomen, TEDx Talks, 2018

Roos Wattel was born deaf. Throughout her life she’s bridged the gap between the hearing world and the deaf world, between deaf culture and hearing culture. And now she is doing the same for museums in the Netherlands. 

Special Masks For the Deaf in India, ISH News, 2020

After the spread of the COVID-19 infection, the 18 million Deaf in India have become even more alienated. Because of opaque masks, Deaf individuals are unable to read lips and see expressions. 


A few Deaf individuals rely on lip-reading, some depend on both lip-reading and Sign Language and some rely totally on Indian Sign Language. 

Deaf Culture

What is Deaf Culture?

Deaf Culture is the set of social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values, and shared institutions of communities that are influenced by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication. When used as a cultural label especially within the culture, the word deaf is often written with a capital D and referred to as "big D Deaf" in speech and sign. When used as a label for the audiological condition, it is written with a lower case d.

Carl G. Croneberg coined the term "Deaf Culture" and he was the first to discuss analogies between Deaf and hearing cultures in his appendices C/D of the 1965 Dictionary of American Sign Language.

Behavioral patterns

What is Deaf Community?

Members of Deaf Community tend to view deafness as a difference in human experience rather than a disability or disease. Many members take pride in their Deaf identity (A deaf identity is about acknowledging the hearing loss, learning new ways to interact (and possibly some new skills) and being proud of what makes you different to hearing people, but also different from other deaf people.)

Deaf people, in the sense of a community or culture, can then be seen as a linguistic minority, and therefore some who are a part of this community may feel misunderstood by those who don't know sign language. 

Another struggle that the Deaf community often faces is that educational institutions usually consist primarily of hearing people. Further, hearing family members may need to learn sign language in order for the deaf person to feel included and supported. Unlike some other cultures, a deaf person may join the community later in life, rather than needing to be born into it.

Deaf Culture vis-a-vis Hearing Culture

Communicating with others can be done through the use of spoken language, which is part of hearing culture, and it can also be done through the use of sign language, which is part of deaf culture. Until the last half century deaf people were degraded, however once sign language became an accepted form of communication in terms of becoming educated, deaf culture began to emerge. Deaf culture allows deaf people to have pride in their experience as opposed to feeling like they are disabled.

Deaf Culture in Indian Community

Deaf people are a cultural-linguistic minority. For thousands of years, they have experienced oppression from the majority group — hearing people, who have prevented majority Deaf Indians from having access to Indian Sign language in education, in their families, and in employment. Dr Tom Humphries, Professor of Deaf Studies, invented a word in his doctoral study called ‘Audism’, which means the ability to hear makes people act superior to those with hearing loss. Every Deaf person will experience a form of ‘audism’ on a daily basis. 

Audism is an attitude based on pathological thinking that results in a negative stigma toward anyone who does not hear; like racism or sexism, audism judges, labels, and limits individuals on the basis of whether a person hears and speaks. Audists can be either hearing or deaf. This attitude can also be present among Deaf individuals. 

In deaf culture, people use two spellings of the word deaf:

Carl Croneberg (1930-) is a Deaf Swedish man who graduated from Gallaudet University in 1955 with bachelor's degree in English. In 1958, Croneberg was recruited by William C. Stokoe (1919-2000) to work in a research laboratory for a linguistic analysis of the language of signs. 

Deaf Culture vs Hearing Culture

WHAT IS MY SIGN NAME?, Cheyenna Clearbrook, 2017

Every deaf person tends to have a sign name to represent who they are

Celebrating Deaf History, Ai-Media, 2018

The Deaf community has a diverse history filled with stories of determination, strength and humanity. It's time to celebrate and remember.

Deaf History

The history of deaf people and deaf culture make up deaf history. The Deaf culture is a culture that is centered on sign language and relationships among one another. Unlike other cultures the Deaf culture is not associated with any native land as it is a global culture. By some, deafness may be viewed as a disability, but the Deaf world sees itself as a language minority. Throughout the years many accomplishments have been achieved by deaf people. To name the most famous, Ludwig van Beethoven and Thomas Alva Edison were both deaf and contributed great works to culture.

Deaf people who know Sign Language are proud of their history. In the United States, they recount the story of Laurent Clerc, a Deaf educator, and Thomas H. Gallaudet, an American educator, coming to the United States from France in 1816 to help found the first permanent school for deaf children in the country. In the late 1850s there was a debate about whether or not to create a separate deaf state in the west. This deaf state would be a place where all deaf people could migrate, if chosen to, and prosper; however, this plan failed and the whole debate died.

Another well-known event is the 1880 Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf in Milan, Italy, where hearing educators voted to embrace oral education and remove sign language from the classroom. This effort resulted in strong opposition within Deaf cultures today to the oralist method of teaching deaf children to speak and lip read with limited or no use of sign language in the classroom. The method is intended to make it easier for deaf children to integrate into hearing communities, but there have been many arguments about whether the manual method (where the teachers teach Sign Language as the main way to communicate) or the 

Oral method (where the teachers make the student learn to speak) are better. Most people now agree that the Manual Method is the preferred method of Deaf communication. The use of sign language is central to the Deaf peoples as a cultural identity and attempts to limit its use are viewed as an attack.

6 Influential Moments in Deaf Culture

The deaf and hard-of-hearing community has had numerous important individuals and milestones that have improved lives over time. These opportunities have helped shape what it’s like to be a deaf person worldwide.

Here are just a few of the influential moments in deaf culture that have made an impact on the community.

1857: Gallaudet University Becomes a Leader in Deaf Education

Gallaudet University in its various iterations has been the global leader in education advances for deaf and hard-of-hearing students for more than 150 years. Originally established as a grammar school for deaf and blind children, in 1864 it began its transformation into the higher education institution it is today.

Gallaudet now offers more than 50 barrier-free degree programs and funds $4.7 million in research for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.

1886: William Hoy Changes Baseball History

William Hoy became deaf and mute when he was three years old, due to a meningitis infection. He attended the Ohio State School for the Deaf and graduated as valedictorian. After graduation, he played weekend baseball and was recruited to play for Oshkosh. An outstanding outfielder, he struggled with hitting due to his inability to hear the umpire call the pitch.

This sparked the idea to ask his third-base coach to signal pitches—one finger for strikes and two for balls. The following season, he excelled in hitting and unintentionally spurred the now-common practice of signaling pitches.

1960: ASL Begins Recognition as a Language

In the early to mid-1900s, people by and large did not recognize American Sign Language (ASL) as a true language but considered it a “code” for English. William Stokoe helped change this perception. He proposed that ASL was as much a language as English.

He published the first book about the structure of the language, entitled Sign Language Structure, which was published in 1960. This triggered others to publish books about sign language, like the ASL dictionary and ASL Linguistic Principles. Because of this impact, Stokoe is considered the founder of sign language linguistics.

1961: The First Cochlear Implant is Developed

The technology that makes up the modern cochlear implant has evolved immensely over the past 3,000 years. The idea of electronically stimulating an ear started in the 1790s, when a researcher placed a metal rod in his ear and connected it to a circuit. Experimentation continued in the 1850s as a way to treat ear conditions.

By the 1930s, researchers found that placing a current near the ear creates auditory sensations. At the same time, the scientific community discovered how the cochlea works and that electrical energy can transform into sound before entering the ear.

In the 1950s, a patient’s acoustic nerve was stimulated with an electrode, allowing him to hear background noise. By 1961, the first cochlear implant was invented—three years later, one was successfully implanted at Stanford University.

1970: The Onset of Closed Captioning

The National Captioning Institute (NCI) is the reason closed captioning technology has become widespread. The first form of closed captioning made its debut in 1970, where only text was displayed on a television screen. The experiment was deemed unsuccessful, but it sparked the idea of closed-captioned TV programs.

A year later, two captioning ideas were proposed at the first National Conference on Television for the Hearing Impaired, but these technologies required special TV sets. Another year of research passed, and Gallaudet University created a closed captioning system in 1972. These programs paved the way for our current closed captioning system.

1990: Deaf Employment Increases

Since deaf people are not allowed to enlist in the military, employment flourished for the community during World Wars I and II. Since so many people were deployed during the wars, the deaf community benefited via increased job opportunities. This was one of the first widespread instances of deaf and hard-of-hearing employment.

Then, with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, outlawing discriminatory practices toward the deaf community, employment and education opportunities for the deaf began to exponentially increase.

Myths about Deaf People

Communicating with a Person who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Tips for Communication


Sources:

Communicating with someone who has a hearing loss need not be difficult. Here are some simple tips for communicating more effectively with someone who has a hearing loss:

Communication is a two-way process. Both the listener and the speaker should take responsibility for clear communication.

Sources: WORLD HEARING DAY, 2022

"CODA was officially founded in 1983 as a result of research I did as a graduate student at Gallaudet University. I sent out the first CODA introductory newsletter and coined the term “CODA – Children of Deaf Adults” referring to hearing offspring of Deaf parent(s). Research has shown that approximately 90% of the children born to Deaf parents are hearing. I was one of them and set out to organize our widely dispersed group. My life was full of constant movement between Deaf and hearing worlds. I felt comfortable in both but not fully immersed in either.  The CODA world would become my third option where I felt balance between my Deaf and hearing cultural experiences."

- Millie Brother, Founder of CODA

CODA

Child of Deaf Adults (CODA) is a person who was raised by one or more deaf parents or guardians. 90% of children born to deaf adults can hear normally, resulting in a significant and widespread community of codas around the world, although whether the child is hearing, D/deaf, or HH (hard of hearing) has no effect on the definition. The acronym KODA (Kid Of Deaf Adult) is sometimes used to refer to codas under the age of 18.

The term was coined by Millie Brother who also founded the organization CODA, which serves as a resource and a center of community for children of deaf adults as an oral and a sign language, and bicultural, identifying with both deaf and hearing cultures. Codas often navigate the border between the deaf and hearing worlds, serving as liaisons between their deaf parents and the hearing world in which they reside.

The Coda Identity

Many codas do not identify with the "hearing world" or the "deaf world". Rather, they simply identify as codas: a bridge between the two "worlds" as they often find themselves in the middle of two. 

While codas might find some similarities between themselves and their hearing peers, they might also find that their upbringing within the Deaf community and culture sets them apart. Codas with cochlear implantation are often even more mixed between these worlds. They communicate with their families through signing but with the hearing world through talking.

Identifying family members

Sources:

Laura Dewey Lynn Bridgman (1829 – 1889) is known as the first deaf-blind American child to gain a significant education in the English language, fifty years before the more famous Helen Keller.

Bridgman was left deaf-blind at the age of two after contracting scarlet fever. She was educated at the Perkins Institution for the Blind where she learned to read and communicate using Braille and the manual alphabet

Helen Adams Keller (1880 – 1968) was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. 

Born in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lost her sight and hearing after a bout of illness at the age of nineteen months. Her first teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan taught her language, including reading and writing. She attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University and became the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She worked for AFB from 1924 until 1968, during which time she toured the United States and traveled to 35 countries around the globe advocating for those with vision loss.

Deafblindness

Being deafblind is recognized as a unique disability in its own right. It doesn't necessarily mean that you are totally deaf or totally blind – most individuals who are deafblind have some residual sight and/or hearing.

It’s not about the amount of sight and hearing you have; it’s about the combined impact of having more than one sensory impairment.

Dual-Sensory Impairment (DSI) or Multi-Sensory Impairment (MSI) are other terms that may be used if you have both sight and hearing impairments.

Everybody with a combined sight and hearing impairment connects, communicates and experiences the world differently. The approach to support will vary, especially between the two broad types of deafblindness explained below. But with the right support, you can lead a connected and fulfilled life.

Types of deafblindness

Causes of deafblindness

These causes mean you may have:

Definition of Deafblindness in India

A combination of hearing and visual impairments causing such severe communication, development, and educational problems that the child cannot be accommodated in either a programme specifically for the deaf or a programme specifically for the blind.

Deafblindness is classified as follows:

There are several definitions of deafblindness. But most of the definitions include the following characteristics:

Persons with deafblindness can be categorized into four types:

Some Indian Achievers

Sources

Further reading

Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) 

NIHL is a hearing impairment resulting from exposure to loud sound typically due to various forms of Noise pollution.

Noise Pollution

Noise Pollution, also known as environmental noise or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise with ranging impacts on the activity of human or animal life, most of them harmful to a degree. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is mainly caused by machines, transport, and propagation systems. Poor urban planning may give rise to noise disintegration or pollution, side-by-side industrial and residential buildings can result in noise pollution in the residential areas. Some of the main sources of noise in residential areas include loud music, transportation (traffic, rail, airplanes, etc.), lawn care maintenance, construction, electrical generators, wind turbines, explosions, and people.

Noise pollution is a serious health hazard and can cause annoyance and aggression, hypertension, high stress levels, sleep disturbances, heart disease, mental illness other serious effects on health besides 

Sound becomes unwanted when it either interferes with normal activities such as sleep or conversation, or disrupts or diminishes one's quality of life. Noise-induced hearing loss can be caused by prolonged exposure to noise levels above 85 A-weighted decibels. A comparison of Maaban tribesmen, who were insignificantly exposed to transportation or industrial noise, to a typical U.S. population showed that chronic exposure to moderately high levels of environmental noise contributes to hearing loss.

Temporary and Permanent Hearing Changes

In addition to hearing loss, other external symptoms of an acoustic trauma can be:

Like smoking, noise pollution affects active and passive recipients when noise levels cross certain safe boundaries.

Noise Pollution in India

Among the major forms of pollution in India is noise pollution. There is no parallel in the world to the noise pollution generated during festivals and religious celebrations in India.

Prevention of NIHL

NIHL can be prevented through the use of simple, widely available, and economical tools. This includes but is not limited to 

For the average person, there are three basic things that one can do to prevent NIHL: 

Non-occupational noise exposure is not regulated or governed in the same manner as occupational noise exposure; therefore prevention efforts rely heavily on education awareness campaigns and public policy. The WHO cites that nearly half of those affected by hearing loss could have been prevented through primary prevention efforts such as: 

Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) 

NIHL is a hearing impairment resulting from exposure to loud sound. People may have a loss of perception of a narrow range of frequencies or impaired perception of sound including sensitivity to sound or ringing in the ears. When exposure to hazards such as noise occur at work and is associated with hearing loss, it is referred to as occupational hearing loss.

Hearing may deteriorate

In both types, loud sound overstimulates delicate hearing cells, leading to the permanent injury or death of the cells. Once lost this way, hearing cannot be restored in humans.

There are a variety of prevention strategies available to avoid or reduce hearing loss. Lowering the volume of sound at its source, limiting the time of exposure and physical protection can reduce the impact of excessive noise. If not prevented, hearing loss can be managed through assistive devices and communication strategies.

The largest burden of NIHL has been through 

It is estimated that 15% of young people are exposed to sufficient leisure noises (i.e. concerts, sporting events, daily activities, personal listening devices, etc.) to cause NIHL.

Pre-molded earplugs (left), formable earplugs (center), and roll-down foam earplugs (right)

Woman wearing cold-weather thermal earmuffs 

A drawing showing the sensation of vertigo

135 crore young people risk hearing loss due to headphones, loud music: Study

Around 135 crore people aged 12-34 years globally risk hearing loss due to unsafe listening practices from exposure to listening devices like headphones and earbuds, and loud entertainment venues, according to a study. The study reviewed data from 33 peer-reviewed studies on hearing loss. The international team behind the study said the governments need to prioritise "safe listening" policies.

Inshorts

World Hearing Day 2022 (3 March)

Theme of 2022: To hear for life, listen with care!

It is possible to have good hearing across the life course through ear and hearing care​

Many common causes of hearing loss can be prevented, including hearing loss caused by exposure to loud sounds​

‘Safe listening’ can mitigate the risk of hearing loss associated with recreational sound exposure​

On World Hearing Day 2022, WHO focuses on the importance of safe listening as a means of maintaining good hearing across the life course. 

In 2021, WHO launched the World report on hearing that highlighted the increasing number of people living with and at risk of hearing loss. It highlighted noise control as one of the seven key H.E.A.R.I.N.G. interventions and stressed the importance of mitigating exposure to loud sounds.

WHO calls upon governments, industry partners and civil society to raise awareness for and implement evidence-based standards that promote safe listening

Target groups:

The World Hearing Day will mark the launch of the:

Hashtags: #safelistening #worldhearingday #hearingcare

Source: World Hearing Day 2022 (3 March), 2022

World Hearing Index

Hearing is one of the most important senses of the human body, and not just for the obvious reasons. Our ears are unique. How I hear is different from how you hear, and to how the person next to you hears. That’s because we all hear differently. And hearing problems are a growing concern, with 55% of the adult population suffering some form of hearing loss and the total volume of people with hearing impairment set to increase to 900 million worldwide by 2050.

Due to heavy noise exposure and today’s always-on mentality, our ears barely have time to rest. We use our hearing for listening to music and podcasts, talking calls or watching movies. And we do this in places that are already loud. Talking on the phone in a busy street and trying to understand the person on the other side of the call is challenging, and we tend to just simply turn up the volume. People on mobile devices typically consume audio content at 17% higher levels when listening in background noise. This is affecting our hearing health and is why hearing loss is a growing global problem.

In honor of World Hearing Day, Mimi Hearing Technologies, a Germany-based company that develops hearing enhancement technology for smartphones, analyzed data from their hearing test app and noise pollution data from the World Health Organization (WHO) in order to create the Worldwide Hearing Index, according to Mimi’s website.

The data, collected from over 200,000 hearing tests worldwide, ranked average levels of hearing loss for people living in 50 global cities. Participant’s hearing age was calculated based on the difference between their performance on the hearing test and their actual age.

“The Average Hearing Loss result was found to have a 64% positive correlation with noise pollution levels in each city, indicating hearing loss may be a direct or indirect outcome of living in these cities,” said the website. “We hope that the study will not only raise awareness to residents of cities and governing institutions, but will act as a call to action for individuals and health care providers to make better investments concerning aural health.”

Source: The connection between noise pollution and hearing loss: Noise pollution as a health risk, 2019