deafness

Comic D.J. Demers jokes a lot about hearing loss — but won't be 'the hearing aid guy'

9:00am November 25, 2024

Demers was diagnosed with hearing loss when he was 4 years old. As a kid, he saw nothing funny about it — but then he learned to make people laugh. He just dropped his fourth stand-up special.

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An experimental gene therapy tested in young children with an inherited form of deafness restored some hearing for most of them.

Health & Safety

Gene therapy shows promise for an inherited form of deafness

8:07pm January 24, 2024

by Rob Stein

Scientists report that gene therapy restored at least some hearing and speech for five out of six children with a rare form of genetic deafness.

National

The world's largest movie theater chain is adding open captions at 240 U.S. locations

2:29pm October 21, 2021

by Rachel Treisman

The world's largest movie theater chain is adding onscreen captioning to 240 locations across the U.S. in an effort to make moviegoing more accessible.

Brady Mistic, a deaf man, is suing the city of Idaho Springs, Colo., and others over his 2019 arrest.

National

A Deaf Man Who Couldn't Hear Police Commands Was Tased And Spent 4 Months In Jail

5:37pm September 29, 2021

by Joe Hernandez

Brady Mistic says in a federal lawsuit that police violated his civil rights by using unnecessary force during his arrest. Deaf in both ears, Mistic can't read lips and communicates by sign language.

Poet Raymond Antrobus's parents didn't realize he was deaf until he was 7 years old.

Books
Arts

'Perseverance' And Poetry Help A Writer Bridge Multiple Worlds

5:06am March 25, 2021

by Jeevika Verma

Poet Raymond Antrobus was born in East London to a Jamaican father and a British mother. He grew up deaf, turning to poetry as a way to navigate between the hearing and non-hearing world.

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Rima Prajapati with daughters (from left) Jhoti, Aarti and Sangeeta. Jhoti and Aarti were both born deaf. Rima moved her daughters from their village to Mumbai so they could attend a school for the deaf.

Health & Safety

A Mom Fights To Get An Education For Her Deaf Daughters

7:00am January 14, 2018

by Kate Petcosky-Kulkarni

There were no schools for the deaf near her village in India. And she had to stand up to the bias against deafness — and the use of sign language.

Scientists used a new gene-editing technique to prevent a form of deafness in mice.

Scientists Use Gene Editing To Prevent A Form Of Deafness In Mice

6:06am December 21, 2017

by Rob Stein

Success with a new gene-editing technique in mice prone to deafness highlights the potential for using it to prevent a form of inherited hearing loss in humans. But it has many hurdles to overcome.

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SignAloud gloves translate sign language into text and speech.

Science

These Gloves Offer A Modern Twist On Sign Language

12:01pm May 17, 2016

by NPR Staff

Two college students developed SignAloud, gloves that connect to a computer and convert some sign language words and letters into speech and text. In the process, they've learned about deaf culture.

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More than 20,000 babies in the U.S. were born with congenital rubella syndrome during an outbreak of rubella in 1964-65. A vaccine developed in 1969 helped curb the virus's spread but hasn't eliminated it worldwide.

Lessons From Rubella Suggest Zika's Impact Could Linger

4:08pm March 22, 2016

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Forty-seven years after a vaccine against rubella was created, the virus still harms about 300 newborns every day, worldwide. Even a cheap vaccine can be a financial burden for poorer countries.

Genetic Tweaks Are Restoring Hearing In Animals, Raising Hopes For People

8:02am July 10, 2015

by Jon Hamilton

The latest accomplishment for gene therapy involves mice with inherited deafness. Meanwhile, the drugmaker Novartis is conducting the first trial of gene therapy for people with hearing loss.

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