                   HEARING HELP GLOSSARY

           (LINGO, DEFINITIONS, ABBREVIATIONS AND BUZZ-WORDS)

Many of these mean different things to different people.  I hope this list of
my personal translations helps you learn to help yourself and others learn to
live with a reduced ability to hear and understand spoken language.
_____________________________________________________________________________
                     
ADA---Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990--- A Federal Law, enacted by
congress and signed by the President, expanding the legal requirements for
equal access to public places and services for disabled people---including
some very specific provisions for hard of hearing people.

A.L.D.--assistive listening devices--- Devices worn or used by a person to
improve the ability to hear and understand speech.  A hearing aid is one type
of ALD, but there are other ALDs available that can and do improve that ability
to hear when used with and in some cases as an alternative to a hearing aid.

A.L.S.--Assistive listening systems---  Systems consisting of transmitters,
carriers and individual receivers in a group situation (classroom, church,
theatre, meeting room, etc..) to enhance the ability of people to hear speech.

AM---amplitude modulation radio---prone to interference, rarely used for ALS.

Amplification--making sound louder.

ASL---American Sign Language--The native language of the prelingually deaf and
deafened people who have given up on audio communication.  A beautiful, smooth
flowing, expressive language---extremely difficult for people who matured in
the "hearing world" to learn.  Unfortunately, the similarity in abbreviations
leads to frequent confusion between ASL and ALS!

Audio--- having something to do with sound in the frequency range of the human
ear.

Audio loop (commonly called just a "LOOP") -- a coil of wire, one or more
turns, completely surrounding a room.  When the ends of the coil are connected
to an audio amplifier (where a loudspeaker is usually connected)--a magnetic
signal corresponding to the sound going into the microphone--is produced
throughout the room.  Anyone having a hearing aid with a telecoil can switch
to the TEE position--and hear the sound free from background noise.

Audiogram---A Graphic chart of the results of a hearing test by a clinical
audiologist showing the decibel sound loss versus the pitch of sounds, and also
indicating the ability to understand spoken words.
 
Aural Rehabilitation--learning to live with a hearing loss.

B.A.--Body aid-- A hearing aid (formerly common, now rare) which has the
amplifying electronics and battery power in a container worn on the body rather
than in or behind the ear.

B.T.E.--Behind the ear -- A hearing aid larger than the I.T.E., worn behind the
ear and connected to the ear mold by an air tube.

C.A.--Canal Aid-- A tiny hearing aid, self contained, worn in the ear canal. 

Captioning---Printed words on the screen of a TV or movie permitting the eyes
to pick up what the ears miss.


Closed Captioning encoding--A system where the TV broadcasting station can
encode the printed captions, along with the sound and picture, and Videotape
producers can put the closed captions on tape.

Closed Caption Decoder--a "black box" electronic device connected between the
TV Antenna (and/or VCR) that detects the presence of the closed caption signals
and puts the printing on the screen.

Caption Decoder chip---miniature microchip integrated circuit containing all
(and more!) caption decoding capability of the "black box" decoder.--which can
be included in newly manufactured TV receivers, eliminating the need for a
separate "black box".

cochlea --the portion of the inner ear containing the microscopic vibrating
hair cells that somehow convert sound to an electrical signal to the brain.

cochlear implant--an electronic device, surgically implanted in a person,
which, in conjunction with processing devices worn on the body- --converts
sound into an electrical signal to the brain.

C.R.S.--California Relay Service--a telephone company service that uses human
operators with good hearing and rapid typing and reading skills to pass calls
between deaf and hard of hearing people and normal hearing people.

D.A.I.--Direct Audio Input--A method of directly connecting a sound input from
a TV, radio, recorder, telephone or P.A. amplifier--by plugging it into a
hearing aid.

db--decibel--a measurement unit used to indicate the level of loudness of sound
or the magnitude of a hearing loss, or the amount of amplification in a hearing
aid or an assistive listening system.

DCARA--Deaf Counselling, Advocacy, and Referral Agency--A non-profit service
agency --of, by, and for the deaf community.

Deafness--a physical condition--which prevents normal sound reception.  If
present at birth or occurring before learning to speak (prelingual) spoken
language is very difficult (but not impossible) to learn.

Ear mold--a custom, individually molded plastic plug which is inserted in the
ear which carries the sound into the ear.  In the I.T.E. and the C.A. the mold
contains all the hearing aid components.

Fingerspelling ---a set of 26 specific manual signs, each one representing
letters of the alphabet, used for signing names and other Proper Nouns and
words for which no specific sign is in usage in ASL or "SEE".  

"Hearing Impaired"---a somewhat ambiguous phrase, wrongly used to arbitrarily
include all people with hearing disability less than profound deafness,
sometimes used to describe all people with hearing ability less than perfect,
and sometimes used to include only those people with a significant loss of
hearing.  I prefer the phrase "hard-of-hearing", to avoid the ambiguity.

FM---frequency modulation radio--less prone to interference, used in several
different assistive systems.

I.T.E. --In the ear hearing aid--A little larger than the canal aid, but worn
at the entrance to but outside of the ear canal.

Induction --The process of inducing a rapidly changing electrical signal in a
coil of wire from a similar signal in another coil of wire even though the two
coils are separated and not directly connected.

IR---Infra-Red--similar to radio, but more like an invisible light beam.
    (the same transmission carrier as used for wireless remote control of TV
receivers and VCR's).   Best A.L.S. for fidelity of sound.(and most expensive)
Usable indoors only, best for large theaters.

Noise--Any sound that you don't want to hear!

Signal--The sounds of speech you want to hear.

S/N---Signal-to noise ratio-- a measure of the quality of speech transmission.
                                                                      
Like any fraction, the signal to noise ratio can be increased by increasing the
numerator (signal) or by decreasing the denominator (noise).  Unfortunately,
public address systems with loudspeakers (and many hearing aids without
telecoils) amplify the noise as well as the signal.  With an audio loop system
in a room and a t-switch and telecoil in a hearing aid--the s/n ratio (quality)
of sound received is dramatically improved!

SEE---Signing Exact English--A sign language where many specific words and
expressions are the same (but not all!) as American Sign Language.  The word
order is the same as the word order in spoken English; whereas in ASL word
order is reversed--which is one of the reasons ASL is difficult for hearing
people and deafened people to learn; and a very valid reason for the rejection
of SEE by the deaf community.
   
P.A.--Public Address system--A system of microphones, amplifiers and
loudspeakers INTENDED to make speech understandable in a crowded public place.

Radio--electromagnetic transmission of speech over long distances.

TDD---Telephone device for the deaf--(see TT) a teletypewriter permitting a
deaf or hard of hearing person who cannot use a voice telephone to type his
words on a keyboard and to receive typed words using an ordinary telephone.

Telecoil--an induction coil (optional accessory in a hearing aid) which picks
up audio frequency magnetic signals from an induction loop (or a telephone) as
an alternative to the microphone signal in the hearing aid.

Teleloop receiver---a special receiver that can detect an audio loop signal--
permits a person without a telecoil in hearing aid to hear.

T-Switch (TEE-Switch)  A tiny, two (sometimes 3) position switch on a hearing
aid that permits switching from the microphone signal to the telecoil signal.

TT---Text telephone--a more recent name for the TDD.

V.C.O. relay---Voice carry-over relay---TDD and relay variation that permits
one with normal speech but poor hearing to transmit by voice, and receive
replies on a teletypewriter (TDD).  Also, a person with normal hearing but
impaired speech can use the TDD relay by typing his side of the conversation,
but can receive directly the speech of the person he is "talking" with.

SHHH---Self Help for Hard of Hearing PEOPLE---An international non- profit
organization of people (and their families and friends) --people who are not
deaf, but have some amount of hearing loss.  The purpose of this consumer
organization is to help PEOPLE cope with this widely misunderstood condition,
and to make hearing loss a subject of national concern.
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by: Paul Stein
 (a hard-of-hearing person)                                         
3323 Duke Ct.                                     
Santa Clara, CA 95051
(408) 248-7294   or (408) 265-6155  or 248-6418
E-Mail        (on Genie)    P.STEIN3
INTERNET   P.STEIN3@GENIE.GEIS.COM

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