Glossary

ABI -- An Auditory Brainstem Implant is an implant like a cochlear implant except that it bypasses the cochlea altogether and attaches its electrode directly to the base of the brain. Only a few specially authorized medical centers and clinics are authorized to implant ABIs. Candidates for this experimental implant are carefully chosen. The surgery is much more invasive than the surgery required for a cochlear implant and is usually undertaken only in situations where the patient is (or has become) completely deaf. Many candidates for the ABI trials are NF2 patients having their second tumor removed.

ABR -- An Auditory Brainstem Response is a test an audiologist can perform which measures your brain's response to sound. It uses electrodes placed in strategic locations on the head to determine how well your acoustic nerve transmits the signal representing sound from the cochlea to the brain.

ACOUSTIC NEUROMAS -- Acoustic neuromas are benign tumors that grow on the covering of the acoustic nerve. They are more recently (and properly) known as vestibular schwanomas, since they actually grow on the covering (Schwann cells) of the vestibular (balance) nerve, but they usually damage the acoustic nerve, which runs together with the vestibular nerve. They typically grow slowly and damage hearing and sometimes balance over time. They can be removed surgically and they can be treated with radiation. Unilateral acoustic neuromas are not hereditary, but if they occur bilaterally, they are thought to be related to a completely different condition called neurofibromatosis II (NF2), which is hereditary.

ADA -- The Americans with Disabilities Act is a law passed by the US Congress that requires reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities.... including people with hearing loss.

AIED -- Autoimmune inner ear disease is when a person's natural immune systems attacks their hearing by damaging their inner ear.  Symptoms are often similar to Meniere's Syndrome.  Other specific AIED syndromes that affect hearing loss include: Bechet's Disease and Cogan's Syndrome.

ALD -- An Assistive Listening Device is any device that helps you overcome your hearing loss. Usually the term ALD is applied to personal devices that transmit, process, or amplify sound, but usually not used to refer to hearing aids. Term may also refer to alerting devices.

ALDA -- The Association of Late Deafened Adults is a support group that focuses on people who have lost all their hearing later in life after having had some hearing earlier in their lives. See the ALDA Web Page for more information: www.alda.org.

ALS -- An Assistive Listening System is a system that helps people with hearing loss hear better in group situations. ALSs provide the same kinds of benefits as ALDs, but ALS usually use FM or IR to transmit the signal from the transmitter to the receivers.

ASL -- American Sign Language is a language used by many people in the US & Canada, who cannot hear to some degree. ASL uses hand shapes, positions, movements, facial expressions, and body movements to convey meaning. ASL uses an alphabet (finger spelling), sign representing ideas, and gestures. ASL is an independent language that has its own grammar and syntax; it is not simply a manual version of English (see Signed Exact English, SEE and Pidgin Signed English, PSE). Sign languages vary from country to country in exactly the same way that spoken languages vary from country to country. There are no universal sign languages except for a language named Gestuno. This is not used in any given location, but used to help all Deaf communicate during the World Federation of Games.

AUDIOGRAM -- An audiogram is a means of recording the results of a hearing test. It will include a table and a graph for each ear showing how well you could hear sounds at various frequencies. This graph dominates the audiogram and measures the lowest volume that you can hear pure tone signals at different frequencies for each ear.

AUDIOLOGIST -- An audiologist is a trained professional who measures hearing loss and can fit hearing aids. An audiologist has at least a Masters degree specializing in hearing loss, and many now also have an AuD (Doctorate) degree, too. Some may even have a PhD.

AUDISM (o^ diz m) n. -- The notion that one is superior based on one's ability to hear or behave in the manner of one who hears. This phrase was coined by Tom Humphries. Tom notes that audism is not only practiced by hearies but by certain deafies as well. It takes various forms from subtle to outright intimidation. Some examples Tom gave are :

"The deaf must learn English (forget ASL) because when they grow up they will have to function in the hearing society and need it to find jobs, find happiness and have a full and useful life."

"But she can't use the phone."

"Oh, you have such beautiful speech. What is your hearing loss?"

"But we don't need a TTY. There are no deaf people here."

AUDITORY NERVE -- The auditory nerve is a bundle of nerve fibers that carries hearing information between the cochlea the brain.  Usually, hearing loss that is called "sensorineural" or "nerve deafness" is actually caused by problems with the cochlea, instead of the actual auditory nerve, but a very small percentage of hearing loss is caused by problems with the nerve, itself--¦usually related to acoustic neuromas (tumors) on the nerve covering.

BAHA -- A Bone Anchored Hearing Aid is a new type of hearing aid that enters it's sound output into the cochlea by vibrating the mastoid bone (the large bony mass just behind the ear) instead of by directing amplified sound at the ear drum.

BI-BI -- Bilingual, Bicultural (or multicultural for minorities). One perspective: Focus is more on the cultural than the language part. The deaf child of hearing parents needing both Family and Deaf culture (and therefore both Family and Deaf language) from infancy. Attitudes, perspectives, and mutual respect need to evolve in both the Family (hearing) and Deaf cultures for Bi-Bi to really succeed. Bi-Bi was not presented as a method for success in English, but rather as an opportunity for cultural diversity and the resulting ability to operate successfully within both cultural frameworks and to respect both cultures.

BTE -- Stands for "Behind The Ear" and refers to a type of hearing aid. BTE’s fit behind the ear, and they have a small clear tube that transmits the sound over the top of the ear and down into the ear canal. The tube is connected to a clear ear mold that fits in the outer ear.

CAN -- Computer Assisted Notetaking means using a computer to type on a normal computer (QWERTY) keyboard to display what is said in a meeting or verbal exchange. It may be as simple as having someone who can hear and type fast act as a notetaker for your meeting, but depending on the skill of the typist, a lot may have to be glossed over.

When done correctly with a good operator, the quality of the remote service can be as good as if the CAN operator were actually in the same room. CAN is different from Computer Aided RealTime Translation (CART), which uses stenographic tools similar to a court reporter.

CAPTIONS -- Captions are words shown on a movie, television or computer monitor showing what is being said in the program. Captions may be "open" (visible whenever the program is shown) or "closed". Closed captions (when shown) may be visible to all people viewing the show, or with some technology, they may be visible only to people who wish to see them.

CART -- Computer Assisted Realtime Translation refers to the use of a computer connected to a stenographic machine to display exactly what is said as transcribed by the operator. Originally used in court reporting, the stenograph (which used to use an coded paper printout) can now be translated in real time to a language you can actually read. CART, is now used frequently to display what is said in meetings so even Deaf and HoH people can read exactly what has been said.

CLASSICAL ORALISM -- A method of educating deaf persons, which relies exclusively upon speech and lipreading (speechreading) for meeting all their communication needs. Advocates of this method banned Sign Language, under the belief that if Sign is used, children won't bother to learn to speak. Some extremists advocated postponing of instruction of reading and writing, because the skills of reading and writing would reduce the incentive to learn to speak and lipread.

COCHLEAR IMPLANT -- A CI is a device that can be surgically implanted into a person's cochlea to stimulate it to cause hearing. It consists of a tiny receiver, which is placed under the skin in the bony part behind the ear. The receiver has a probe with several electrodes (usually 22 now), which is implanted into the cochlea. A cochlear implant can be useful if the hearing loss is caused by problems with the cochlea (usually damaged hair cells) or where the loss is caused by problems with the middle ear that cannot be corrected.

There is considerable controversy over cochlear implants. Some people, especially some Deaf people, feel that cochlear implants are experimental and may not be best for children, who could lead perfectly fulfilling lives as Deaf individuals without assuming the medical and psychological risks of an implant. They fear that hearing parents (about 90% of all Deaf children are born to hearing parents) may be subjecting their children to unnecessary risks in order to make the child hear "like them".

CODA -- (hearing) Child Of Deaf Adult.

COGAN’S SYNDROME -- A rare autoimmune inflammatory disease that is characterized by sudden hearing loss in both ears (bilateral sensorineural hearing loss); dysfunction of that portion of the ear that helps to regulate balance; abnormal ringing sensations.

COMMUNICATION ASSISTANT -- A relay operator is called a "Communication Assistant", or CA for short. When a hearing person needs to call a deaf person, but does not have access to a TTY, they can make a relay call. The CA will type what you want to say to the deaf person and then tell you what they types in response. This can work the other way, as well. A deaf individual can call a hearing person or business through the relay. All states have their own 800 number for their relay service, however, now there is a national number (711), which anyone in the United States can use.

CUED SPEECH -- Cued Speech is a system of hand shapes and movements that can be used to supplement spoken sounds so that people with severe hearing loss can still understand what is being said.

DCODA -- Deaf Child of Deaf Adult.

Deaf -- In this capitalized form, the word "Deaf" generally implies that the person doesn't hear well enough to understand speech from their hearing, alone, but it also means that they consider themselves part of the "Deaf Community".

deaf -- In this uncapitalized form, the word "deaf" simply means unable to hear. It says nothing about the individual, the individual's language or culture.

 DEAF AND DUMB -- (or even just "dumb", when applied to deaf people who do not speak) is an archaic term that is considered offensive.

DIGITAL HEARING AID -- A digital hearing aid uses digital rather than analog processing. Digital means that the sound is converted to 1's and 0's and processed via computer rather than simpler analog processing.

DUAL LINE VCO -- Dual line Voice Carry Over, which is sometimes called "Two-line Voice Carry Over", is a special way of using Relay) that allows someone with two phone lines and some residual hearing, to not only see the text that the relay operator types, but to also hear what the other party has said. To access, you need to give the relay operator the second number to use, and the operator will dial you back on the second line and send the sound over one line and the text over the other line.

EARDRUM -- A thin membrane at the end of your ear canal. It is also known as the tympanic membrane.

EAR MOLD -- A piece of plastic or other soft material molded to precisely fit in the ear and to deliver the sound from a BTE hearing aid. A BTE aid with tubing and earmold is shown at the right.

ENG -- Electronystagmography is a test that an audiologist can use to measure a patient's vestibular or balance function based on involuntary eye movements associated with vestibular (balance) function. ENG is actually a battery of seven different tests that record the patient's vestibular ocular reflex to provide some insight into their vestibular function.

FACIAL NERVE -- The 8th cranial nerve, also known as the facial nerve doesn't directly relate to hearing, but it does lie beside the auditory nerve and travel in some pretty tight channels thorough the skull as they both make their way to the brain. There is a connection between hearing loss and the facial nerve in some situations, such as acoustic neuromas or NF2, where tumors on the acoustic nerve (or the surgery to remove them) can damage the facial nerve, too.

FM -- Frequency Modulation means varying a radio signal's frequency (instead of amplitude) to transmit useful information.

HAIR CELLS -- Hair cells in the cochlea are moved by the vibrations of the cochlea and of the fluid in the cochlea caused by sound waves. The cells at the base of the hair cells convert their motion into electrical signals to be sent up the acoustic nerve to be interpreted by the brain as sound. Actually, the hair cells are not really hair; but the behave somewhat like hair might. Damage to hair cells (or the lack of them) is one of the major causes of hearing loss.

HARD OF HEARING (HOH) -- Refers to someone who doesn't hear well. This may be because they were born with a hearing loss or they may have lost some or all of their hearing later in life. It's estimated that 28 million people in the US have some level of hearing loss. The largest part of that group (perhaps 25 million or more) can hear well enough that with proper hearing aids or assistive listening devices, they can continue with their spoken language as their primary communication mode.

HEARING AID -- A hearing aid is anything that helps a person with usable residual hearing to hear better.

HOHA -- Hearing Offspring of Hearing Adults.

IDEA -- The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is a US federal law that requires certain educational standards and accommodation of children with disabilities. This includes children with hearing loss.

IEP -- Although not directly related to hearing loss, IEPs (Individual Education Program) are of interest because they are used to define the specific educational needs of individual children. The IEP is required by law for children with disabilities (including hearing loss). An IEP team including professionals from the school system (in cooperation with the child’s parents) writes the IEP for each child.

IMPLANTABLE HEARING AID - In the year 2000, an implantable hearing aid was approved for public sale. The first such implanted aid uses a small electronic coil that is connected to one of the bones of the middle ear. The sound is picked up by a microphone and processor that is placed outside, behind the ear. The signal is transmitted through the skin to a receiver implanted in the mastoid bone (the bony part of your skull behind the ear). A tiny wire to the electronic coil in the middle ear connects the receiver. That coil vibrates with the amplified signal and thus causes the middle ear bones to vibrate as if the eardrum had stimulated them.

INNER EAR -- Includes the cochlea, the semi-circular canals and the auditory nerve.

INTERPRETER (SIGN LANGUAGE) -- A person trained in translating between a spoken and a signed language. This usually means someone who interprets what is being said and signs it for someone who can't hear, but understands sign. The interpreter also will interpret and speak the words that convey the meaning of whatever the signing person signs so hearing people can "hear" what is signed. Since ASL is a completely different language from English; it cannot be translated "word for word", so it requires considerable skill to be a sign language interpreter.

IP-RELAY -- IP-relay stands for Internet Protocol relay and it is a relay service that uses the Internet instead of the phone system. Using IP-Relay, anyone with a computer connected to the Internet can connect to a communication assistant (CA) using a chat-like window under his or her browser.

Several services are available. To make an IP-Relay call, just use your browser to go to one of the following web sites:

• AT&T VRS  (www.relaycall.com/vrs/)
• Hamilton Internet Relay  (www.hiprelay.com)
• MCI Relay (www.ip-relay.com)
• Sprint Relay Online (www.sprintrelayonline.com)

ITE -- An In-The-Ear hearing aid. These aids are typically flesh colored and fill the outer part of the ear canal. ITE aids are larger and more visible than CIC aids. ITE aids generally do not have as many features or as much power as BTE aids.

LINGUAL DEAF -- Person who acquired language at the normal age of language acquisition (usually before age 3). The acquired language can be a spoken language (if the person was born hearing and later lost it) or a sign language (if the person was born deaf or is CODA). It is generally believed that lingual deaf have better chances of success in academic settings than non-lingual deaf. Omer Zak suggested this term

LOOP -- A hearing aid with a telecoil that is turned on can "hear" and amplify a magnetic signal that represents an audio signal. A loop is used to generate the magnetic signal. An amplifier drives a loop, and the electrical signal, modulated to represent the audio signal, causes the loop to send out a magnetic signal.

MANUAL FAILURE -- A deaf person who was educated using Sign Language, and due to cognitive and/or motor problems, he/she cannot use Sign Language for effective communication. Those problems may have existed from birth and/or have developed at later age. Such persons may have better luck using augmentative and/or assistive communication techniques. It is doubtful whether they would have been able to effectively use speech and lipreading.

MANUALISM -- A training and education methodology that acquired the status of life philosophy, which advocates usage of Sign Language by deaf and hard of hearing people, for whom speech and lipreading are very difficult. Since group communication is difficult for several hearing impaired persons of all hearing abilities, Sign Language is advocated as a means of communication for all hearing impaired persons.

NECKLOOP -- One type of loop. It is a necklace-size loop of wire that can be plugged into an ALD or ALS receiver, a radio, TV, some computer speakers and some telephones. It is then worn around the neck of someone who has a hearing aid with a telecoil.

The neckloop generates a weak magnetic signal that can be "heard" by the telecoil and amplified by the hearing aid. A neckloop and telecoil are the interface of choice of many hearing aid users.

A neckloop is convenient because it:

• Can drive both hearing aids (not with true stereo, but with a mono signal into both aids).
• Does not require wires running up the neck to the hearing aid(s), and can even be worn under a shirt or jacket. 

NERDA -- Not Even Related to Deaf Adult (i.e. an adult person who has no relationship to any deaf person whatsoever.)

NF2 – Neurofibromatosis, Type2 is a genetic condition that usually causes acoustic neuromas to form on both hearing nerves. Acoustic neuromas (more properly called "vestibular schwanomas") are benign, usually slow growing tumors that grow on the covering of the acoustic nerves. They normally cause a high frequency hearing loss that progresses over time and can result in virtual deafness. The tumors can be surgically removed or treated with radiation.

NF2 is an extremely rare condition that is estimated to affects fewer than 1 in 40,000 people. Although the condition is genetic, about 50% of the cases are not inherited from one's parents, but are spontaneous. Although NF2 usually results in acoustic neuromas, most people with an acoustic neuroma only have one tumor and do not have NF2.

NON-LINGUAL DEAF -- A person who did not acquire a language at the normal age of language acquisition (usually before age 3). This can happen because the person was born deaf or lost his hearing before having opportunity to acquire language. A person exposed to Sign Language before age 3 will nevertheless acquire a language and become lingual deaf. Omer Zak suggested this term.

OCCLUSION -- Means "blockage" and specifically refers to that "in a drum" feeling you get when your hearing aid or earmold plugs up your ear canal. It's not a feature or an acoustic property of the hearing aid electronics, but simply a function of having something in your ear canal that prevents normal airflow.

The normal "fix" is to have a vent (hole) through your in-the-ear (or canal) hearing aid or ear mold that allows the air to get into your ear canal and prevents that "blocked up" feeling. Of course, if you need a lot of amplification, that will limit how large a vent you can have, since a vent with a lot of amplification will cause feedback. You've got to work with your audiologist to determine whether a suitable vent is possible with your loss.

Some canal aids are so small (partly because your ear canal might be so small) that a vent is not possible. That's one of many reasons why a BTE might be a better solution for people with losses that require a lot of gain, since the ear mold will have more room for a vent.

ORAL DEAF -- A deaf person who was educated using Oral methods, and when grown up didn't gravitate toward the Deaf culture and didn't learn Sign Language. It is believed by some people (though not all and not proven) that those persons have, on the average, poorer social life than those deaf persons who chose to embrace the Deaf culture. Note: Many deaf people, who were educated using Oral methods, nevertheless gravitate toward Deaf Culture at adult age and learn Sign Language.

ORAL FAILURE -- A deaf person who was educated using the Oral method, stressing lipreading and speech. However it didn't work out for the person and he/she grew up deprived of both sign language and real knowledge of the language used by the society in which they are.

ORALISM --   A training and education methodology that acquired the status of life philosophy, which advocates the emphasis of speech and lipreading as the preferred method of communication to be used by hearing impaired people.

OTOTOXIC DRUGS -- Drugs that can cause temporary or permanent hearing loss. They can also make an existing hearing loss worse. Everyone, especially someone with a hearing loss, should be careful when taking drugs to make sure they are not ototoxic.

There may be times when an ototoxic drug is appropriate. For example, if not using that particular drug might have more serious consequences than hearing loss or deafness, then you might want to weigh that alternative. In general, if there are alternatives, you might want to avoid ototoxic drugs. If you already have a hearing loss, you might even want to be more alert than normal, since physicians may not all consider that factor seriously enough before recommending an ototoxic drug.

OUTER EAR -- The outer ear is called the pinna or the auricle. It's the part that sticks out of your head. Its function is to collect the sound and channel it down your ear canal. It also provides some level of directionality by being more effective at gathering sound from in front of you.

POSTLINGUALLY DEAF -- A person who was born hearing and lost it after acquiring spoken language (i.e. at age 3 or later).

PRELINGUALLY DEAF -- A person who was born deaf or lost hearing before acquisition of any language - spoken or signed, usually before age 3. Note: The usual term used (by the hearing world) is: “born deaf.”

PREBYACUSIS -- Refers to hearing loss related to age. It is also referred to as age induced hearing loss. Age, itself, doesn't cause hearing loss, but the prevalence of hearing loss does increase with age.

While it's true that approximately 1 in 3 people over the age of 65 have a significant hearing loss, the total number of people younger than that who have a significant hearing loss is actually larger than for the older group. Hearing loss in older people is a serious problem. Many are unprepared for the loss and have a difficult time adapting to it. Many people try to ignore it or pretend it's not serious, but they are usually not fooling (or hurting) anyone but themselves.

Doing everything you can to improve your hearing with hearing aids, ALDs, or coping strategies can make a huge difference in a person's ability to communicate and, therefore, in their quality of life.

PROFOUNDLY DEAF -- Usually refers to a person with a hearing loss of more than 90 dB. Person may be able to hear some environmental noises, but cannot understand spoken speech without assistance. For some, even assistance will bring no help.

PSE -- Pidgin Signed English is a combination of American Sign Language and English.

ASL is a distinct language, and (like most other languages) it does not map perfectly to English. There is no equivalent for many specific words and the syntax is completely different. Culturally Deaf people, signing with each other, usually use ASL, but many people, (frequently deaf or hard of hearing) who learn to sign later in life, after hearing and using spoken English, do not sign strictly in ASL. Instead, they use a mixture of ASL and English that is known as PSE.

With PSE, someone might sign most of the English words of a sentence and use approximately the English syntax. Culturally Deaf people are usually very adept at understanding and using this blend of English and ASL when they sign with someone who doesn't strictly use ASL.

RELAY -- Deaf or hard of hearing people can use the phone, even if they can't hear and understand voices on the phone. In the US, and in many other countries, a free service called Relay is provided. In the US, the service is paid for on a state-by-state basis using a small surcharge on all the phone bills. Typically this surcharge is only a few cents a month. With that money, each state contracts with a relay service, which provides relay operators called communication assistants (CAs) who participate in a relay call by typing what the person you called says, so you can read it. The CA will voice what you type for the other person to hear what you typed.

Relay calls using the phone system only charge for portion of the long distance call between you and your called party. There is no extra charge for the call to the relay center, which may be in another state. Some relay contracts also provide a discount on the long distance rates because of the speed differential of communication with typed words.

Each state has a series of relay numbers that can be called to place your call. There is also the national Relay number, 711, which will go directly to a CA to initiate a relay call.

Primarily, Deaf, deaf or hard of hearing people, uses relay services but special relay services are also available for speech-impaired people. Relay services typically now offer a "branding" feature that allows them to know your preferences automatically when a call comes in from your phone number. For instance, if you are hard of hearing and using VCO, you may be "branded" to a relay center that employs CAs which don't have heavy accents.

Now, relay also provides IP-Relay, which allows you to make relay calls from any computer connected to the Internet. One good thing about IP-Relay is that the calls are completely free, since they don't use the phone system for long distance, but use the Internet instead.

If you can hear a little bit and speak, you can also use VCO Relay, which allows you to hear the party you called and speak directly to them ... and the CA will just type what the other person says so you can read it.

SIMULTANEOUS COMMUNICATION -- Refers to speaking English and attempting to sign at the same time. Many people claim that this method allows for a lot of trouble for deaf people, because neither complex English nor complex ASL is used.

SHHH -- Self Help for Hard of Hearing People is a non-profit corporation that focuses on education, advocacy and self- help for people with (or interested in) hearing loss.

SPEECHREADING -- Is the proper term for what is more commonly known as "lip reading". Almost everyone supplements what they hear with what they see. Hard of hearing, deaf and Deaf people just speech read more than most.

If you look very closely and train yourself, you can see a lot of the sounds by the shape and movement of the tongue, and lips. Still, only about 30% of the sounds we make when we talk are accurately recognizable from speech reading. Many sounds look the same "on the lips", but sound quite different ... for example, the words "bat" and "pat".

Someone relying on lipreading can usually only follow a conversation by adding help from body language, facial expressions, and context. Even then it usually requires some "going with the flow" and most of it is simply educated guessing.

It’s important to remember that not all deaf and hard of hearing people can lipread well enough to have a conversation. Regardless of their skill, it is still exhausting and should be used to a minimum unless the hearing impaired individual requests it.

SPONDEE -- Spondees are two sylable words which have approximately equal emphasis on each sylable. If you've taken a hearing test that included the audiologist saying words to you for you to repeat back, many of the words would be spondees. Examples might include "baseball", or "ice cream".

TDD -- Abbreviation for Telecommunication Device for the Deaf. Nowadays this term is considered to be politically incorrect, because also people who are hearing but speech-impaired use this device. However. TTY is the preferred term used by the Deaf. See: TTY.

TELECOIL -- A wonderful feature available on many hearing aids is called the "telecoil". It's also referred to as a "t-switch" or "t-coil". It's nothing more than a tiny coil of wire around a core that will induce an electric current in the coil when it's in the presence of a changing magnetic field. A telecoil, can therefore, be an alternate or supplemental input device for a hearing aid.

TELETYPE -- See: TTY.

TINNITUS -- Frequently called a "ringing in the ears". One of the common symptoms of hearing problems is hearing a sound that isn't really there. People describe tinnitus in many different ways. Some are just wording differences, but some give you a clue that tinnitus comes in many different forms. The most common descriptions include words like: "sizzling", "ringing", "tinkling", "roaring", and "whooshing". The sound may be constant or may vary depending on circumstances. Some people find that a hearing aid can lessen the impact of tinnitus. Other treatments include "maskers", which are hearing aid-like devices which generate more sound to hide the tinnitus, and "trainers", which are hearing aid-like devices that train your brain to ignore the tinnitus. Some drugs may cause temporary or even permanent tinnitus.

TOTAL COMMUNICATION -- Using all means possible to teach or convey an idea. Utilizes ASL, SEE, written English, pictures, gestures, writing, lipreading, speech, etc. Unfortunately, many people who use the term “total communication,” really mean “simultaneous communication” or speaking English and attempting to sign at the same time. Utilizing this limits the child’s language experience, since they are never exposed to complex English or complex ASL.

Despite what some may say, ASL-only supporters do not only sign ASL. Just like hearing teachers with hearing students, if the students don’t comprehend a concept, a new route must be taken. They might use rewording, role-playing, pictures, gestures, hands-on experiences, or whatever helps.

TOTALLY DEAF -- A person is totally deaf if he/she can hear absolutely nothing. This condition isn’t common. The term “stone deaf” is occasionally used instead. Some totally deaf persons can benefit from cochlear implants.

TT -- Text Telephone. This term is used in some countries, where the sign for it is not too offensive. See: TTY.

TTY -- A TTY is a device like a typewriter that has a small readout. It is also called a Telecommunication Device for the Deaf (TDD) but that name has been devised by the hearing community and is not accepted by Deaf people, the actual users of TTY technology. We still prefer the term, TTY.

A TTY can be used to send text over the phone. Someone who cannot hear can then use the phone by typing what they want to say and reading what the other party says.

A person using a TTY can converse directly over the phone line with anyone else who is using a TTY (and in some cases with someone who has a computer). A person using a TTY can even converse with someone not using a TTY via relay. Most TTYs use Baudot and can only connect directly to another TTY or to any phone via relay. Some TTYs can also use ASCII, so they can also connect to a computer.

A Deaf man developed the original TTY, and it was a sort of confirmation of the saying that "necessity is the Mother of invention".

Simple TTYs just have rubber cups into which the earpiece and speaker of a phone handset can be placed. Since they communicate simply using sounds that represent characters, they can use any phone, except cell phones. However, some newer cell phones do support some newer TTYs. Extra features on some TTYs include printers, memories, and some are now pocket-sized and battery operated

TYPES OF DOCTORS -- A doctor who specializes in problems of the ear, nose and throat are normally called an ENT or an Otolaryngologist.

If the doctor has additional training in the medical and surgical management of dizziness, hearing loss, and tumors of the ear they may be called an Otologist.

If the doctor has additional training in diagnosing and treating nasal related disorders, then they might be called an Otorhynolaryngologist.

It's important to be examined by at least one of these medical professionals when dealing with a hearing loss, since there are many conditions related to hearing loss that might require medical attention, rather than just a hearing aid. Some of these conditions can be life threatening. Some can be treated. If you have a hearing loss ... and haven't seen one of these medical professionals, you should make an appointment soon.

VCO -- Voice Carry Over: An option of the relay service (See: Relay) that allows a person (who can speak but not hear well), to talk on the phone with someone who can hear.

With a VCO relay call, the person who cannot hear does not have to type their message, but can speak it directly. VCO can make a relay call much more convenient for hard of hearing people or late deafened, since only one side of the conversation has to be typed and that is done by the relay operator.

VCO PHONE -- A Voice Carry Over phone is a special phone with a text readout that allows you to use VCO mode when making a relay call. A VCO phone also includes special features for hard of hearing people, including, a powerful volume boost, frequency control, a flashing light to indicate when the phone is ringing, a volume control on the ringer, a 3.5mm jack to plug in a neckloop or ALD and of course, it's HAC.

VERTIGO -- A feeling of dizziness that occurs when your sense of balance has been disrupted. This can be a temporary sensation from turning around too quickly, or a symptom of some damage or disruption of your vestibular system.

VESTIBULAR -- Vestibular refers to your sense of balance. Your sense organs that tells you which way is up and which ways your head is accelerating are the semicircular canals. They are closely related to your hearing. The semi-circular canals are three tiny circular tubes at right angles to each other that contain fluid and can sense when that fluid is moving in each of the three dimensions that make up our 3D space.

There are two sets of semi-circular canals; one set adjacent to each cochlea. Nerve bundles coming from the semi-circular canals join together with your auditory nerve and carry balance signals to your brain. Many people with hearing loss also have some degree of balance difficulties, since the vestibular (or balance) system and the auditory (or hearing) systems are so closely related. Many audiologists also have specialized training and equipment to help diagnose and treat people with balance problems.