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Index Number: 26313

[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

I found the below guide from the latest SHHH Journal to be very
informative and wanted to share this with those of you who are not
SHHH members.  In addition, if there are any terms that you may think
of that are not listed, please share them with us.
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             A Complete Guide to Terminology About Hearing
                    Loss and Communication Access

* ALERTING DEVICE - Visual or tactile devices to alert a person who
    cannot hear to door knocks, telephone rings, fire alarms, etc.

* AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA) - The 'Americans With
    Disabilities Act of 1990' Public Law 101-336 prohibits
    discrimination on the basis of disability by private entities.

* AMPLIFIED PHONE (Also called VOLUME CONTROL TELEPHONE) - Phone
    equipped with volume control on the handset.  Public coin-operated
    phones have a volume control button on the wall unit.

* ASSISTIVE LISTENING DEVICE (ALD) - Technical tool to assist deaf/
    hard of hearing people, with or without a hearing aid.  It brings
    the speaker's voice directly to the ear.  Helps to overcome the
    problems of distance and surrounding noise.

* AUDIO LOOP (INDUCTION LOOP) - Uses electromagnetic waves for
    transmission of sound.  The sound from an amplifier is fed into
    the wire loop surrounding the seating area (or worn on the
    listener's neck) which broadcasts to a telecoil that serves as a
    receiver.  Hearing aids without a T-switch to activate a telecoil
    can use a special induction receiver to pick up the sound.

* AUXILIARY AIDS and SERVICES - The Department of Justice regulation
    provides a comprehensive list of auxiliary aids and services
    required by the ADA to help overcome communication barriers.
    Examples of auxiliary aids and services are assistive listening
    devices, interpreters, notetakers, captioning, etc.

* CLOSED CAPTION - Text display of spoken dialogue and sounds on TV
    and videos visible only to those using a caption decoder or TV
    with built-in decoder chip.

* COMMUNICATION ACCESS - Accommodations that provide an environment
    where persons with hearing loss can communicate.

* COMPATIBLE TELEPHONE - Generates a magnetic field that can be picked
    up by turning on a T-switch to activate the telecoil in a hearing
    aid.  "The Hearing Aid Compatibility Act of 1988" mandates that
    all telephones manufactured in the United States from 1989 on
    should be hearing aid compatible.

* COMPUTER-ASSISTED NOTETAKING - Visual display of the speaker's words.
    A notetaker types on a computer keyboard a summary of what is being
    said.  The notes are displayed on a projection screen or monitor.

* CUED SPEECH - A sound-based visual communication system which in
    English uses eight handshapes in four different locations ("cues"),
    in combination with the natural mouth movements of speech, to make
    all the sounds of spoken language look different.

* DECIBEL (dB) - Unit used to express the intensity of a sound wave in
    logarithmic ratios to the base of ten.  Sounds of different
    frequencies need to be from 0-20 dB in intensity to be heard by
    normal ears.  If more than 20dB is needed, then further hearing
    evaluation would be recommended.

* DEAF - Describes people who usually have no useful residual hearing
    and who generally employ sign language as their primary mode of
    communication.  They may also use speechreading, hearing aids and
    other assistive technology to aid in communication.  Based on the
    age of the time of loss of hearing, people who are deaf are
    categorized into two groups, congenitally deaf - those who were
    born deaf; and adventitiously deaf - those who were born with
    hearing, but whose sense of hearing became non-functional later
    in life through illness or accident.

* EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION - Term used in the ADA as a standard for
    access for people with hearing loss.  A public accommodation must
    provide an auxiliary aid or service where necessary to ensure
    effective communication with individuals with disabilities.  The
    Department of Justice strongly encourages staff of public
    accommodations to consult with the individuals before providing them
    with particular auxiliary aids or services.

* FM - A transmitter which broadcasts the signal by radio waves from the
    sound source to a receiver worn by the listener.  Useful in large
    indoor or outdoor locations, since it can cover several hundred feet
    and pass through physical obstructions.

* HARD OF HEARING - Describes people with any degree of hearing loss
    ranging from mild to profound.  They can understand some speech
    sounds, with or without a hearing aid.  Most people who are hard of
    hearing are oralists, although a small number learn sign language.
    Generally, they are committed to participating in society by using
    their residual hearing plus hearing aids, speechreading, and
    assistive technology to aid communication.

* HEAD-END-DECODING - Hotels with in-house television cable systems can
    provide closed captioning services by head-end decoding.  The TV
    signal at the master antenna (head-end) is split and one of the two
    signals is run through a closed caption decoder.  The decoded signal
    is outputted to an unused TV channel of the in-house cable
    distribution system.  Viewers can have a choice of the same program
    on a channel with captions or on another channel without captions.

* HEARING AID - An amplification device to assist persons with hearing
    loss.  There are different kinds of aids distinguished by how they
    are worn.  They may be in-the-ear (ITE), in-the-canal (ITC),
    behind-the-ear (BTE), or on the body.  The technology is still
    imperfect and hearing aids do not correct hearing loss.  Newest
    developments include programmable aids.

* HEARING IMPAIRED - Generic term used to describe all persons with
    hearing loss, includes two million deaf people and 22 million hard
    of hearing people in the United States.

* INFRARED - Similar to FM except that it uses invisible light waves to
    transmit sound.  Frequently used in theaters.

* INTERNATIONAL SYMBOL OF ACCESS FOR HEARING LOSS - Symbol used to
    denote communication access.  Represents hearing loss in a general
    way.

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                              ********
                             * ****** *
                             * *    * *
                                     *      (Sorry about my sloppy
                                    *        drawing skills on the
                                     *       ear!)
                           //// *   *
                          ////   ***
                         ////

* INTERPRETER - ORAL - the interpreter silently mouths the words of the
    speaker so they are visible on the lips.  Used when the person uses
    speechreading to understand the conversation.

* INTERPRETER - SIGN LANGUAGE - the visible movements of hands, body and
    face replace the vocal elements of a spoken language.  Depending on
    the communication situation and personal preferences, deaf and hard
    of hearing persons in the United States who use sign language may
    communicate using the unique grammar of American Sign Language (ASL)
    or some variety of signing that uses features taken from both ASL
    and English.

* LIPREADING (Also SPEECHREADING) - A skill used by a person with
    hearing loss to try to understand speech by watching the lips.  The
    term "speechreading" is now recognized as being more descriptive
    since it includes watching the facial expressions and body language
    as well as the lips of the speaker.

* NOTETAKER - A person who takes notes on a blackboard, overhead
    projector, notebook, etc.  Key words and phrases are written to
    enhance the understanding of the person with a hearing loss.

* RELAY SERVICE - Sometimes called dual-party telephone relay service.
    Enables text telephone users to communicate with a non-text
    telephone user by way of a relay service communications assistant.
    The ADA mandates a nationwide relay service by 1993.

* T-SWITCH - A setting on a hearing aid that can be used with a
    hearing-aid-compatible telephone, assistive listening device, and
    audio loop system.  When the hearing aid is switched to "T", it
    activates the induction telecoil (the technical name for the "T"
    switch), causing the hearing aid to pick up the magnetic field
    generated by the "hearing-aid-compatible" telephone assistive
    device, or a audio loop system being used.

* TEXT TELEPHONE (TT) - Formerly TDD or TTY - a text telephone is a
    telecommunications device used by those who cannot understand on the
    phone.  A typewriter-like unit shows the conversation on a screen so
    that it can be read.  A text telephone must "talk" with another text
    telephone or a computer.  The transmission is with a special coding
    called Baudot or ASCII.

* VIDEOTEXT DISPLAY - A real-time speech-to-text system.  The words of
    the speaker are typed on a keyboard similar to that used by court
    reporters.  The text is then projected onto a screen to be read by
    the audience.  Specially trained personnel are required to operate
    this system.

* VISUAL ALARM SIGNAL - A visual signal (flashing light) giving notice
    that an audible event has taken place.  For example, doorbell, fire
    alarm, ringing telephone.  Some systems monitor a single event,
    others can monitor several events and indicate which event has
    occurred.

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Source:  SHHH Journal, January/February 1993

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