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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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