Practical AT session 3”
WP4-D4.2.
Hearing Disability and Kurzweil 1000.
Prepared by: Shams Eldin Mohamed
Ahmed Hassan
Agenda
• Hearing Disability.
• Types of Hearing Loss
• FM Transmitter from Phonak.
• Kurzweil 1000 Windows Version 13.
Hearing Disability
• The idea that a person who was deaf could achieve a notable or distinguished
status was not common, Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée founded the world's
first public school for deaf students in Paris at the beginning of the 18th century.
• He was one of the first advocates for using sign language in deaf education.
• Then The local Deaf communities insisted on maintaining their own Paris sign
language.
• The success of the Paris school spawned similar schools throughout Europe and
the New World.
2. Hearing Disability
• Hearing loss, deafness, hard of hearing, or hearing impairment
• Is a partial or total inability to hear.
• In children it may affect the development of language and
can cause work related difficulties for adults.
Factors that causes hearing loss.
1. Genetics
2. Age
3. exposure to noise
4. illness
5. chemicals and physical trauma
.
Basic Facts About Hearing Loss
• The World Health Organization recommends that young people limit the use
of personal audio player to one hour a day in an effort to limit exposure to noise.
• About 20 percent of adults in the United States, 48 million, report some degree of
hearing loss.
• At age 65, one out of three people has a hearing loss.
Basic Facts About Hearing Loss
• 60 percent of the people with hearing loss are either in the work force or in
educational settings.
• About 2-3 of every 1,000 children are hard of hearing or deaf
• Estimated that 30 school children per 1,000 have a hearing loss.
Types of Hearing Loss
1. Degree of Hearing Loss
• The numbers are representative of the patient's hearing loss range in decibels (dB
HL).
Degree of hearing loss
Hearing loss range (dB HL)
Normal
–10 to 15
Slight
16 to 25
Mild
26 to 40
Moderate
41 to 55
Moderately severe
56 to 70
Severe
71 to 90
Profound
91+
Types of Hearing Loss
2. Configuration of Hearing Loss
• Refers to the degree and pattern of hearing loss across frequencies (tones), as
illustrated in a graph called an audiogram.
• A hearing loss that only affects the high tones would be described as a highfrequency loss. Its configuration would show good hearing in the low tones and
poor hearing in the high tones.
• If only the low frequencies are affected, the configuration would show poorer
hearing for low tones and better hearing for high tones.
• Some hearing loss configurations are flat, indicating the same amount of hearing
loss for low and high tones.
2. How do we hear things?
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•
•
•
Sound waves enter the ear
Go down the ear canal (auditory)
And hit the eardrum, which vibrates
The vibrations from the eardrum pass to the three ossicles (bones called the
malleus (hammer), incus (anvil) and stapes) in the middle ear.
• These occicles amplify the vibrations, which are then picked up by small hair-like
cells in the cochlea; they move as the vibrations hit them.
• The movement data is sent through the auditory never to the brain. The brain
processes the data, which we interpret as sound.
Assistive Technology
• Unlike the situation years ago, nowadays just about everyone with any type or
degree of hearing loss can be helped with some kind of hearing assistive
technology– whether it be hearing aids, cochlear implants, other implantable
devices, assistive listening devices, or captioning.
• Hearing Aids The most common devices.
• Audio loops (or hearing loop).
• FM
• Infrared systems
Assistive Technology
• audio or hearing loop is a wire that circles a room and
is connected to the sound system.
• The loop transmits the sound electromagnetically.
• The electromagnetic signal is then picked up by the
telecoil in the hearing aid or cochlear implant.
• No additional receiver or equipment is needed.
• Using a telecoil and hearing loop together is seamless, cost-effective,
unobtrusive, and you don’t have to seek out and obtain special extra
• equipment.
Assistive Technology
• Infrared system uses invisible light beams to carry sound from the source to a
personal receiver.
• http://soundinduction.co.uk/pages/infrared-hearing-systems/
• (The sound source must be in the line of sight.) Different types of attachments
may be connected to the personal receiver such as a neckloop or a behind-theear silhouette inductor.
• The telecoil then picks up sound from the receiver via the attachment.
• FM system works similarly, but sound is conveyed though radio waves to a
personal receiver.
Roger Inspiro
• This wireless teacher microphone is the core component of any Roger system for
education.
• It features two wearable microphone options,
simplified menus and customizable soft keys.
• Maximum Performance improvement of up to 54% over other
FM and digital systems and 35% over Dynamic FM technology.
• Roger Receivers
Roger Receivers are a solution for every listener.
Kurzweil 1000
• Kurzweil 1000 makes printed or electronic text accessible to people
• with blindness and visual impairments
• Founded in 1996 by Kurzweil Educational Systems.
• The company supplies two principal software products
1. Kurzweil 1000
2. Kurzweil 3000
• Through its OCR and text to speech features, users can scan print materials.
• Kurzweil 1000 combines traditional reading machine technologies such as scanning,
image processing, and text-to-speech with communication and productivity tools.
• Gives the Ability to Write and Edit Documents
Features for note taking, summarizing content, and outlining text
• Save Time and Gain Independence
Thank you