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Hearing Loss: The Hidden Disability
By Don Doman
Hearing loss is a hidden disability. As such it doesn’t get the political and financial support that more obvious handicaps receive from government and private organizations. Hearing loss is the number one disability in the world as well as the number one birth defect among infants . . . and yet, nothing has really been done about it.
Blind children learn to read Braille and graduate from high school at the same reading levels as their sighted peers. Deaf children even with help of American Sign Language generally graduate at the fourth grade level.
What starts out as a hearing problem is really a communication problem. If you’ve never heard, you don’t know what words sound like, so you can’t speak. If you can’t speak, you can’t hear, you can’t read, and can’t write, how can you communicate? How can you get a job? The answer is they don’t.
Combine the birth defects problem with hearing loss from a noisy world and the loss of hearing as we grow older and you have a major problem. Even if a problem is hidden, it’s still a problem. And it won’t go away.
When severely hearing handicapped Clover Park Rotarian Gene Pankey learned about research underway to restore hearing by re-growing inner ear hair cells, he put into action what today is known as Rotarians for Hearing Regeneration (RfHR: www.hearingregeneration.org). What better way to tackle a world-wide problem than to address a world-wide organization? Several decades ago Rotary began working for the elimination of Polio. Today that goal is just about realized.
Handicapped since a childhood by total hearing loss in one ear, Pankey suffered hearing loss episodes in his good ear. That brought him into the realm of those involved with research underway at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Research has discovered that birds spontaneously re-grow inner ear hair cells, thus restoring their hearing. That research has provided a dawning of Rotarian involvement. The small group of Rotarians decided to try helping researchers by educating Rotarians and others about the possibilities of restoring hearing in mammals by regenerating hair cells. The thinking is, “If birds can do it, why can’t we?”
Pankey, Rotary District 5020 Past District Governor Dave Sclair, and Dr. David Cotant, also a Clover Park Rotarian, formed today’s RfHR and set about trying to educate Rotarians and help raise 20 million dollars to support the research program.
Education efforts have included a PowerPoint show, an 11-minute video, brochures, and making numerous presentations to clubs, conferences, and a booth at the 100th anniversary Rotary convention in Chicago.
Today, RfHR has members all over the United States and several other countries. Approximately 2,000 copies of the video – Hope For Hearing Loss: The Hearing Regeneration Initiative – have been distributed. An updated version of the video is in the works. Fundraising has continued without interruption and more efforts are planned.
RfHR has joined forces with the Hard of Hearing Hall of Fame (www.hardofhearinghalloffame.com), which is dedicated to recognizing achievement from the hearing impaired and educating people about hearing loss, thereby reducing hearing problems.
Research funds are still far from the overall goal, but all donations help. 2006 saw matching funds cover half a million dollars, and in 2007 there are matching funds available for the first million donated. RfHR hopes its publicity and education campaigns result in adequate funding that allows research to move ahead quickly. Hearing loss should not be hidden. By recognizing it, we may soon unlock the secrets of hearing loss and hearing restoration.
Don Doman is a published author, video producer, and corporate trainer. He owns the business training site Ideas and Training (http://www.ideasandtraining.com), which he says is the home of the no-hassle "free preview" for business training videos. He is also the founder of the Hard of Hearing Hall of Fame (http://www.hardofhearinghalloffame.com) and a board member of Rotarians for Hearing Regeneration.
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