Technology rules: captions, helmets, and mouse genes
March 2024
Calling with captions
The Denver Chapter’s February meeting got off to a shaky start, when both microphones turned out to be inoperable. That meant the installed hearing loop could not be used. Which, in turn, meant members with telecoils in their hearing aids turned them on in vain, and the speaker’s voice was hard to hear. However, the good news was that the speaker’s PowerPoint file was able to generate captions and project them on the stage wall. So captions saved the day.
The incident provided a good illustration of what CapTel representative Hillary Embry had come to show us: how captions could make communication possible when hearing wasn’t an option. In the case of CapTel, captions are displayed on screens connected to specially installed land line or internet-connected telephones. Callers are connected through a designated line with an interpreter, or captioner. When a call arrives from a hearing person, or when you make a call, the captioner transcribes their words onto your screen.
CapTel, one of several companies furnishing phone captions, has recently added an artificial intelligence feature, Hillary said. The AI translater generates the captions. In case of errors, which AI has a habit of making with some words, the live captioner makes quick corrections.
CapTel and other phone captioning services are provided at no cost to people with hearing loss through a federally administered program in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
A step closer to breaking the code
The movement to understand—and replicate—nature’s method for regrowing damaged hair cells continues. According to the Hearing Health Foundation’s (HHF) February 2024 newsletter, researchers have found four genes that may be critical in restoring hearing through biological means.
The foundation’s Hearing Restoration Project members Yehoash Raphael, Ph.D., and Andy Groves, Ph.D., and teams coauthored a study that shows some guinea pigs treated with a combination of four genes were able to grow new cells resembling hair cells.
Fellow researcher David Raible, Ph.D., and colleagues used mathematical techniques and 3D imaging to identify the shapes of sensory cells in zebrafish. They explain:
Cells can change in ways that are not necessarily reflected in gene transcription levels, so this method, detailed in the journal Development, offers another avenue to quantitatively characterize and classify cells.
The research is important because replacing or regrowing hair cells has become the Holy Grail of hearing loss mitigation. In 2021 the HHF launched a program called Operation Regrow, to develop technology to restore hearing by regrowing damaged hair cells, a common cause of hearing loss from noise and age. The project’s director, Lisa Goodrich, Ph.D, of Harvard Medical School, explained the issue this way in a 2021 webinar reported in the Autumn 2021 issue of HAH:
And so how does this work? How do we actually collect the sounds and turn them into something that has so much meaning for us? It actually all starts with movement of air. Sound travels as wavelengths and that is moving the air. It is a mechanical thing that has to happen first. Our ears are an amazing machine that collects this mechanical energy and turns it into a signal the brain can understand. It starts with the wavelengths of sound traveling to the ear canal and causing vibration of these tiny little middle ear bones that are moving because of the movement caused by the sound. Those bones sit here and that will cause vibrations that are detected here in the inner ear by the cochlea. The cells that make this actually happen are the hair cells.
It may be a while yet before we can trade in our hearing aids for a session of gene therapy, but ongoing studies of how certain animals (mice and birds, for example) are able to restore lost hearing naturally, offer hope that that day will come. As Dr Goodrich concludes, “The good news is we know it is possible.”
New Navy helmets protect flight crews
The U.S. Navy is about to start issuing new hearing protection for its pilots.
According to the September 26, 2023 Military Times, the Navy has developed a new helmet with advanced hearing protection for flight crew working under extreme noise conditions, without sacrificing the ability to communicate during missions. Distribution was to begin in February and continue through 2027 along with deployment of new aircraft carriers.
The HGU-99/P Hearing Protection Helmet aims to facilitate crew communication and curtail hearing loss by including additional hearing and impact protection, according to Amie Blade, a spokesperson for Naval Air Systems Command.
“The key differences in the new HGU-99/P helmet provide three levels of increased hearing protection, which include the in-earcup speaker, foamy ear plugs and helmet edge seal to reduce bone conductivity of sound, as well as improved impact/bump protection liner [and] face-to-face communication with speech intelligibility noise-filtering,” Blade said in an email to Navy Times.
The Naval Aircrew Systems program office told Navy Times it spearheaded revisions after fleet assessments from 2020 determined that the HGU-99/P Communication Ear Plug helmet variant now in use could not keep up with sailors and Marines as they put on and took off their helmets multiple times a day during high tempo flight operations.
“Based on the data collected from our fleet assessments, we have been able to further refine the communication capabilities, which will enhance operations tempo on the deck,” Capt. Carey Castelein, program manager for the Naval Aircrew Systems program office, said in a Navy news release.
That is good, and long overdue, news, as hearing loss and associated tinnitus are the leading forms of disability for returning veterans, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. One reason is that hearing protection hasn’t been available, as several Denver Chapter members can attest. “The only ear protection I can remember was used at the shooting ranges, when we fired our rifles in practice,” member and Army veteran Bob Haigh recalls.
Another reason is that soldiers and their commanders had other concerns that crowded out concerns about hearing loss. (According to at least one internet commenter, issued ear plugs weren’t used because they weren’t considered “macho”.)
Another Army veteran, member Allen Stanley, remembers the noise but no one was thinking about is aftereffects. As he recalls: “When I served [during the early 1980s] there was no such protection for the men against all the noise that you had to deal with—on the firing range, equipment, or transport planes. We were just in the elements as they were. There was not a thought or a solution that had even been considered as far as protection.”
Some flying advice for civilian travelers
While commercial flights do not include ear protection, HLAA has other advice for members who need to fly with hearing loss. From the national website:
HLAA encourages all travelers with hearing loss and other disabilities to learn what your rights are, prepare well in advance and self-advocate at every step. Be sure to take these actions when planning your next trip, whether to the HLAA convenion or a summer vacation:
• When ordering your ticket, identify yourself as someone with hearing loss.
• If traveling with a service animal, complete and submit all paperwork in advance.
• Review the online accessibility policies of the airports you’re using—departure, destination, and any connection. Find out what accommodations are available and where.
• At the airport, self-identify at every point of contact; in particular, ensure that gate agents are aware that you may not be able to hear announcements and require preboarding.
• Familiarize yourself with materials for travelers with disabilities from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the new Airline Passengers Disability Bill of Rights.
• Report any disability-related air travel issues to the airline or to DOT.
Zoom in for the next commission meeting
The Colorado Commission for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and DeafBlind will have its next quarterly meeting Wednesday, March 6 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The meeting will be online, and Zoom registration is required. The link to register is https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkdO2pqDojGdQm35JlRuaLj5Hx_Ee2mo8s
Next chapter meeting: March 16
The next meeting of the Denver Chapter will be on March 16 at the Koelbel Library, 5955 S Holly St., Centennial, CO 80121, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Member Jennifer McBride will lead a discussion of the emotional side of hearing loss. The Chapter Board will meet at 11:30 at the library before the meeting.
Looking for comments
With this Substack format, readers can reply to every issue by clicking on the “Comment” button at the bottom of the screen. Some folks like to respond directly by email, which is fine, but by posting a comment, you can be sure all other readers will be able to see it, and offer their own views. Even people who are unable to attend monthly meetings will then have a chance to be part of the discussion. Try it, and I’ll be checking regularly to see how you think we’re doing.
Paula DeJohn, editor
Remembering the Past
By Barbara Nguyen
Born on the Colorado plains on a farm,
Every morning hoping it’s not too early to hear the alarm.
Feed the chickens and pigs and milk the cows,
hoping the big bull will take its bows.
Then off to school for a long ride on the bus,
to join our friends and study we must.
My Mom’s huge garden was lots of work and food,
We had to help no matter our mood.
Beans, peas, tomatoes, and Corn.
She canned it all for us when we were born.
A weekend trip to the mountains to look for rocks on the hill,
Was a treat for us kids that only good luck could fill.
Remembering all of this and our Mom and Dad,
Who kept us happy and never sad.