Some About.com Deafness blog posts continue to draw comments over the years.  A reader who is a musician with hearing loss, recently posted on the blog post "Desperately Seeking...Analog Hearing Aids." This musician said digital hearing aids simply don't work when he is making music. Plus, he mentions a blind study of digital versus analog hearing aids (I am not aware of this study) that allegedly found people actually had no preference. So many readers have complained about how companies are only making digital hearing aids while they prefer the sound quality of analog hearing aids. Apparently there would still be a market for analog hearing aids...if companies would make them.

British researchers have found that when people sign and move their lips at the same time, the signs apparently are mentally processed separately from the lip movements. How did the researchers find this out? They showed test subjects pictures and had them sign what was in the pictures; then they  had them interpret print words into signs. The mistakes made by the people in the study (such as signing banana when the picture is an apple, or seeing the word apple and mouthing/signing banana) indicated that lip movements are unconnected to the signs.

A federal appeals court just overturned a district court's decision against a deaf UPS employee. This employee claimed UPS did not provide him with interpreters for less important (weekly) meetings, and instead only provided "summaries"  (UPS stated they provided notetakers) for the less important meetings. Obviously, he could not participate in the less important meetings just as a deaf student without an interpreter can not participate in class even if that class is just a gym class.

What does this ruling mean for the deaf and hard of hearing community? (I'm not sure this is a ruling.  The appeals court remanded the case for "further proceedings.") The appeals court said employers can choose modifications for accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but can not provide ineffective modifications. Does this mean that a deaf employee who is offered only a notetaker or an e-mail summary after a meeting can argue that those are "ineffective" and the employer must provide an interpreter EACH and EVERY time?

If you would like to read the full court case, I found the full appeals court decision online. The full court case is loaded with interesting details, such as how the employee's limited English skills meant he often could not understand written information.

This week's big cochlear implant story is the development of a new surgical technique that allows  people to get the benefit of two cochlear implants with only one surgery and one implant. It works by having two wires and two microphones. This type of implant has been around for a while (40 other implants like it have been done in Europe). However, it is big news in the United Kingdom where the first one has just been done.