Mark | CochlearWorld.com

Author Archive for Mark

CIRead trial up and running

Published

on February 11, 2008

. 0 Comments

OK, this may have some potential. I have a prototype of CIRead up and running here. Jennifer and Meryl voted “yes” so they are my test subjects. As you can see, excerpts from their posts show up on my front page and under the CIRead menu option. The authors on the post are set to the author in the RSS feed (them, not me). The post titles link directly to their blog posts. So, they should see some advantage in driving traffic to their sites since I am only posting teasers here. The teasers are not fully automated (yet).
If you are interested in joining the CIRead experiment, just leave me a comment somewhere. It is “opt in” only — you have to ask to be included. It is also “opt-out” — you can bail out for any reason at any time.

Thanks. Comments appreciated.

Mark

CIRead or CIPlanet?

Published

Mark

on February 10, 2008

in Announcements

. 8 Comments

Someone emailed me and asked if I would be interested/and or willing to set up a Cochlear Implant “planet site.” A “planet site” is a site that collects descriptions of posts on other sites and refers the reader to them. In our case, a CI planet site would be a place on CochlearWorld.com that would semi-automatically aggregate blog post descriptions (not the entire post) and provide a link back to the original post. It would be opt-in (the blog author would have to ask to be included). Not all posts from a particular blog would be included (CI content would be required; post must be family friendly, etc).

This is really similar to what DeafRead does for the wider deaf community. Admittedly, the CI Planet site at CochlearWorld would be pro-CI. I am not very interested in posting some of the mean stuff that see written about the evils of cochlear implants.

EDIT: I should be more clear. I am very interested in fact-based discussion about the merits, problems and moral issues around cochlear implantation. I respect and value the opinions of thoughtful members of the deaf community that are against cochlear implantation.

What I am not interested is some of the angry hateful spew that I see. I will be trying to avoid posting those sorts of writings from both points of view.

Anyway, let me know what you think. I’d be willing to give it a try if several bloggers are interested in having their sites included. Leave a comment and let me know what you think (or what else you need to know).

Thanks! Mark

HearSay and the Dallas Cochlear Implant Program

Published

Mark

on February 5, 2008

in CI News

. 0 Comments

Exciting news for those of us in Dallas. If you don’t know about HearSay, you can check out the link below. The below announcement was posted on the ProblemCI list, and I am reprinting it here without permission.

We are pleased to announce that HearSay has become a sponsored activity of the Dallas Cochlear Implant Program (DCIP). DCIP is a collaborative program of Children’s Medical Center Dallas, UT Southwestern Medical Center, and UT Dallas Callier Center. We wish to express our deepest appreciation to DCIP or their expertise and financial support. This relationship will greatly facilitate the mission of HearSay: Connecting Families of Hearing Impaired children. Thanks to the generous support of DCIP, HearSay will immediately egin providing babysitting during our educational programs, additional programs for our hearing impaired children and their siblings, and advertising to reach more families. We look forward to a wonderful relationship with the Dallas Cochlear Implant Program.

_____

HearSay

Connecting Families of Hearing Impaired Children

For more information please visit < http://www.dcip.org/> www.dcip.org; click on the burgandy “HearSay” links.

New Cochlear Implant Link Directory

Published

Mark

on January 31, 2008

in CI Links

. 0 Comments

I guess by now, you have all figured out that I am a software geek. Well, I got a cool plugin for Wordpress that lets me run a cochlear implant link directory within this site. I have it up and running, and I have started to add links. My goal is to create an exhaustive resource of cochlear implant links.

I will be adding links over the next few weeks. Of course, your help would be appreciated. If you would like to add your favorite site (your own site, for example — or your favorite CI resource), please navigate to the best category and click on “Insert your link here.” Note that it does not have to be an actual site — it could be a link to a cool page within a site.

For those of you that are adding your own site to the database, you will have the opportunity to add a “reciprocal link” back to CochlearWorld. If you are willing to do that, I would appreciate it (but it is not required). I will approve all CI links that are submitted (backlink or not).

No off-topic links, please. This is a cochlear implant link directory only. Of course, links to other related hearing disorder stuff is welcome as well. Sorry Jodi, we probably will not have a section for your special products — but I plan to add your excellent blog to the database myself personally.

As always, I am very interested in your feedback.

Cochlear Implant T-Shirts

Published

Mark

on January 31, 2008

in CI Merchandise

. 6 Comments

I was surprised to find that there are many cochlear implant t-shirts for sale on the web. I’m not sure why I was surprised, since there seems to be a t-shirt for just about everything these days. Anyway, if you every wanted a cochlear implant t-shirt, you can see some here. My favorite is the “got magnets?” shirt. I love that one!

Cochlear Americas 2008 Graeme Clark Scholarship awards

Published

Mark

on January 24, 2008

in CI News

. 0 Comments

As the parent of a fifth-grader that makes A’s (when she wants to), I love the fact that it is possible for deaf children with cochlear implants to attend major universities in the hearing world. This cochlear implant technology has come so far, so fast.

Cochlear Americas announced today that five students have been selected to receive the 2008 Graeme Clark Scholarship awards - receiving up to $38,000 of financial assistance toward an accredited university.

Cochlear Americas said:

“This year’s scholarship winners were selected from an inspirational
pool of applicants who have benefited through use of their cochlear
implants,” said Chris Smith, President, Cochlear Americas. “We believe that
education empowers people to be more independent and to more fully
participate in the economic and social benefits of our society and are
happy to be able to provide assistance to such intelligent and successful
young adults as they move into the next chapter of their lives.”

It is mind-blowing for me to think about Alley taking philosophy classes at a university someday. It seem like we were just learning that she was deaf (that was 7 years ago).

Invisible Cochlear Implant

Published

Mark

on January 23, 2008

in CI Accessories

. 5 Comments

Yesterday I was talking to a person who had met Alley only twice. Both meetings between Alley and this person (a friend of a friend) were brief encounters, but they did include a conversation about school and other pleasant exchanges. I just actually met this new friend a few days ago, and during my conversation with her yesterday, I mentioned Alley’s cochlear implant (and the fact that Alley is completely deaf without it).

My new friend was amazed. Whe she met Alley, Alley had her hair down (as she often does). There was no way for anyone to know that Alley had the cochlear implant. Alley can hear amazingly well, and her speech is great. So, there are no cochlear implant clues. Our new friend had no idea that Alley had a cochlear implant, or that Alley was completely deaf without it. This is great for Alley, because it allows her to control details about her personal medical information (to some exent).

But then I got to thinking — what if people needed to know Alley is deaf and has a cochlear implant and she could not tell them? Is there an need for her to wear a medical alert bracelet? I googled around, and sure enough, there are cochlear implant medical alert bracelets out there. (In fact, it had turned up when I was messing around creating the Cochlear Implant Auctions page the other day - but I did not think about it at the time.)

Here is one example from eBay:

No items matching your keywords were found.

Obviously, if “No items matching your keywords were found,” there are none for sale on ebay at the moment. Come back to this post in a few hours…they always come back.

I bought one from eBay for Alley.

So, my question to you is — do you or your children wear these? I guess this would be very important in the case where an MRI might be needed in an emergercy (as one example). What are your thoughts?

Wrightslaw is coming to Dallas

Published

Mark

on January 22, 2008

in CI News

. 0 Comments

Thanks to Michelle for sending me this information last week.

Wrightslaw is coming to Dallas.

WRIGHTSLAW Special Education and

Advocacy Training Conference

For Parents, Educators, Advocates, Attorneys

MARCH 13, 2008, Dallas

Mail-in registration open. Web registration begins this week.

http://www.wrightslaw.com/speak/08.03b.tx.htm

For a registration form and brochure visit: www.arcdallas.org

Presented by Pete Wright, Esq.Sponsored by The Autism Society of Collin County

Also supported by the Ruben Family Foundation,

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, The Arc of Dallas,

Speech TX/Julie Liberman MS CCC SLP, East Side Speech Clinic/Anne

Russell Bramlett MS CCC SLP, The Behavior Exchange/

Tammy Cline MS BCBA

Cochlear Implants for Cats

Published

Mark

on January 21, 2008

in CI News

. 2 Comments

I was “googling around” today and ran across this cat with a cochlear implant. Apparently, the Ryugo Lab reported on study they conducted in 2005 where congenitally deaf cats were fitted with cochlear implants. The goal was to determine how deafness impacts neurology — specifically “end bulbs.” End bulbs are the small encapsulated bodies at the end of sensory nerve fibers. So, they implanted some cats and studied their brains compared to deaf cats without implants. Based on their observations, they believe that deaf cats were able to repair some of the cats neural pathways. They write:

After 3 months of use, the synapses of auditory nerve fibers in these implanted cats were compared to those of normal hearing cats and congenitally deaf cats of the same age. In short, cochlear implants “rescued” the synapses of the deaf cats.

More importantly, it is a really cute picture. We have two cats, neither of which have cochlear implants. I’m glad our cats were not part of the study, because I am not sure how you get the auditory nerve cross sections shown in the study without making the cat very angry. Probably not a PETA-compatible study.

There are some “cochlear implant controversy” implications of this study as well. The study suggests that the neural pathways of congenitally deaf children “degrade” if they are not implanted. Cochlear implantation is suggested to reverse this effect. Does this mean that parents of deaf children should be “morally obligated” to obtain cochlear implants to prevent this degradation? I am certainly not saying that this is the case, but it sure raises some interesting question for this hotly debated issue.

As always, your comments are welcome.

Cochlear Implant Discrimination

Published

Mark

on January 20, 2008

in CI Humor

. 2 Comments

OK, that is an ominous and foreboding title — “cochlear implant discrimination.” Scary. Luckily, this is not an ominous and foreboding post. In fact, this is a funny post (I think). I am still trying to decide. This all happened a couple of days ago, and now that CochlearWorld.com is back on the air, I thought I’d share it with you and see what others think. Maybe you can help me by leaving a comment and tell me what you think.

The other day, I saw a message from Paula Rosenthal on CICircle. She wrote:

I recently found some groups of parents with kids with hearing loss over at [website omitted]. It seems quite a few are coming in with newly diagnosed children and are looking for support. These boards don’t seem very active so I thought I’d drop you all the links if you are interested in visiting and offering your experiences. Let me know what you think. ~ Paula

I thought it was cool of Paula to point this out — because I had never even heard of the site she found. (As an aside, you should check out Paula’s great site — HearingExchange.com if you have not already). You probably noticed that I’ve omitted the name of the website referenced in Paula’s message because I am not trying to pick a fight with that site. Also, I think that the forum that Paula referenced is a good helpful site, and I don’t want to take away from that.

Well, I was working that day, but I took a look anyway. After all, if Paula took the time to mention it, I figured it was worth my time. Still, I was in a pretty big hurry.

Sure enough, there was a parent over there going through something similar to what I went through seven years ago. As on most sites, to post you must register. So, I quickly registered on the site and left a nice message of encouragement based on my personal cochlear implant parenting experiences with Alley. About 20 minutes later, I got this message:

Hi, Mark:

Your [site omitted] account has been canceled because the site is ONLY for moms and moms-to-be. If you’re a dad, we recommend a site like [second gender neutral site omitted] (no relation).

We appreciate your cooperation.

The [site omitted team] Team

Now, at first I was a little miffed. After all, my opinion should count too. I’m a man, and we have rights! I thought about writing Barack Obama or somebody and demanding justice! I knew I should have sent that tax deductible donation to the ACLU this year (rats!). The funny thing is that I am a manager at a fortune 500 company that proudly wins awards from Working Mother’s Mag and others every year. I even help my wife fold laundry and change diapers. I have a collection of great quiche recipes (I’ll save those for another post).

After 30 seconds of indignant outrage, I decided to let it go. The moms on CICircle reassured me that Dads are people too. So, I guess I am over it — but I thought you might enjoy the story. As for me, I’m off to have some chamomile tea.