An About.com reader wrote on Causes of Hearing Loss that their hearing loss was caused by Alport Syndrome. So, I decided to learn more about Alport Syndrome, and the result is this new article on Alport Syndrome.

This week I have been made aware of the fact that the movie "Up" is out on DVD - but not all formats are captioned. According to Codeman38 on Twitter, the bare bones (no bonus features) rental version of "Up" does not have captions or subtitles.

Once again, I must remind my readers that captions on DVDs are voluntary. The laws we have for captioning DO NOT address dvds. So we are at the mercy of home video companies. If a company like Disney chooses not to caption one of their DVD formats, it is because they can legally do so without any penalty! The only "penalty" Disney can suffer is embarrassment if enough people complain and get the message across that ALL DVD formats must be captioned, including the rental version.

So if I want to see "Up," I have no choice but to buy it. No renting.

Over the years, I've seen a variety of reasons that a cochlear implant sometimes gets denied. This one takes the cake: good speech. Since when does the quality of one's speech have anything to do with the level of one's hearing and need for a cochlear implant?? Based on the reasoning for denial cited in CD's Ear Blog, I should have been denied for a cochlear implant by my own insurance company.

Has anyone else ever been denied a cochlear implant for merely having good speech? Any other stupid, indefensible reasons?

No, I'm not talking about my own love life. I'm referring to what a young deaf girl asked her parents. In her disability column, Jennifer Amy Rose writes that her deaf daughter asked her parents, "do you think anyone will love me - I mean - with my hearing aids?" Even today with much acceptance of hearing loss and even pride in their hearing aids, deaf kids can still struggle with issues of self.

Related on About.com: Growing Up Deaf - Rude Awakening