The Hearing Blog

The annual convention for the Hearing Loss Association of America wrapped up Sunday morning, following a busy three days of meetings, workshops, speeches, receptions, and a symposium.

Shortly, I’ll be posting the revised and extended notes from the workshop Martha Jones CCC-SLP and I presented on (class)room acoustcs.

There were a few Cheers and Jeers at the Convention worth mentioning:

Cheers to audiologist Tina Childress: She saw the CI processor blinking light on a little old lady sitting next to me, came over, and troubleshooted it, including swapping out coils with her own.

Jeers to HLAA executive director Brenda Battat, who preaches installing loop induction systems (which do .NOT. work well)… But only two of the meeting rooms had loops! The convention center ballroom, where the keynote and hearing aid technology symposiums were held, and the banquet hall in the hotel did .NOT. have loops installed, instead relying on wide area infrared ALD’s (assistive listening devices).

Cheers to Williams Sound for donating the wide area infrared ALD systems actually used. Gee, I wonder why it worked so well?!

Jeers to the unidentified vendor supplying the induction loop ALD system for the reception in the Harley-Davidson Museum: It was not set up properly, since it was too weak; and also there was no high frequency boost to compensate for the steel decking below the concrete floor, the roof decking, and the perforated sheet metal walls.

Cheers to Patricia Trautwein of Advanced Bionics, who booked a much quieter venue  for their reception this year. Sound meter readings were in the 70-75 dBa range, which makes it easier for the hearing impaired.

Jeers to exhibitor Phonak for not having their new Dynamic Soundfield system in their exhibit booth, even though their US headquarters is only 90 minutes away near Chicago.

Cheers to my co-presenter Martha Jones, CCC-SLP for putting on a superb first half of the From Mouth to Ear: Acoustic Architecture, Assistive Listening Devices and New Room Acoustical Standards Workshop.

Jeers to Hearing Aid Research & Development Symposium moderator Dr. Catherine Palmer of Univ. of Pittsburgh: When a fellow Member complained about how her audiologist was not competent in helping her set up ALD’s, she (Palmer) made excuses for the professional incompetence, rather than offering to investigate. In fact, it is incumbent on professors just like her to assure that their audiology schools graduate professionals who are competent in dispensing hearing aids & ALD’s. If these “professionals” can’t — or don’t want to — do the job properly, then they should get out of the business. And if these Ivory Tower professors and schools can’t — or won’t — weed out these inept students, then they should lose their accreditation.

Cheers to HLAA’s Nancy Macklin, flying solo for the first time, for putting on a successful convention, and working to contain costs for the Members.

Jeers (again) to Hearing Aid Research & Development Symposium moderator Dr. Catherine Palmer of Univ. of Pittsburgh: The top hearing aid engineer in the world was only 90 minutes away, yet the Big Bald Guy wasn’t even invited. Besides the late Sam Lybarger, Mead Killion has probably helped more people hear better than anyone else in the industry.

Cheers to the management at the Midwest Airlines Center in Milwaukee for keeping the temperature at a comfortable 72 degrees (I measured): This was much more pleasant than the noisy, hot & humid Opryland venue last year.

Jeers (yet again!) to symposium moderator Dr. Catherine Palmer of Univ. of Pittsburgh: This time for her poor quality control in allowing one of the seven hearing aid manufacturers (not Phonak or Starkey) to show a five minute movie to the Members without captions! This is the Cardinal Sin, coming in front of an audience of over 500 hearing impaired users, yet not captioning their video. #FAIL!

Cheers to AOS President and crack cochlear implant surgeon John Niparko, MD, incoming AAA President Patricia Kricos, PhD, VA Chief Audiologist Lucille Beck, PhD and IEC Chair Conny Andersson for taking time out of their busy schedules to fly to Milwaukee to address our Convention. Second cheer to Pat Kricos for spending parts of three days and conducting a workshop: She “gets it” with her excellent attitude towards us in the hearing impaired community.

~edited 11:30PM 6/27/2010