[nfb-db] Frustrated with svcreenreaders

[gene richburg]

Hi Catherin, and every one else, I have been looking in to getting an 
implant my self.  The advanced bionics people have gotten me in touch with 
one person who is pretty much blind, and he told me to that he really likes 
his ci.  He really likes the clear voice program because he's actually able 
to hear people over things such as blenders and mixers, the kind of thing 
that would have been almost impossible with ha's.  He told me, that at 
first, things sounded pretty robotic, then, as time went on, it just got 
better, and better.  So he tells me that when things are quiet, he can tell 
where things are, and he also told me that the cergent was unable to get all 
the channels in to his cochlea, so that might have something to do with how 
well he is able to do.  I also got to talk to some one at the ab event that 
I went to last June, who told me her incredible story of how she went 
totally deaf all of a sudden with out warning when she was 17.  She's now 
61, and she got her ci, and the audi told her that he had a meeting to go 
to, and to set her processor on the music program, so she could try to 
listen to her iPod.  So, she did that, and she said she isn't the kind of 
person that usually cries, but she said that when she heard music that she 
use to listen to before she went deaf, she just broke down.  Then she tried 
learning to listening to speech, so she got this children's story book, and 
the tape that went with it, and she said that for about two weeks, 
everything just sound like mo, mo, moa momo, until one day, she turned it 
on, and she heard, this is the story of snow white, and the 7 dwarfs, and 
then everything after that was just jumbled again.  So, she rewound the tape 
and tried it again, this time, she heard a little more, and so that's what 
she did to get her through that, eventually she learned how to listen. 
Then, she decided to try the phone, so she decided to call her x husband's 
office, because she new that no one was ever there, and that there would be 
an answering machine, well, she found out later, that she called it 17 
times, before she was able to understand every word.  Now, here's the most 
magical part.  Then, she decided to call her daughter, now, her daughter had 
never heard her speak before, so get ready for this one.  So she called her 
daughter, and when her daughter said hello, her mom said, Tarra, this is 
mom, and Tarra said, a, mom?  So, Tarra wasn't sure she wasn't dreaming, so 
she made her mom repeat everything Tarra said to make sure that it was 
really real, and when they got off the phone, Tarra passed out.  Now, is 
that somethen or what?  This lady, deb, also told me that there are two 
different types of implants, there is the advanced bionics, and just the 
regular one, don't know what that one is called, but with the ab one, you 
get an 85 db sound window, where as with the regular one only 45.  She's 
also a ginny pig for these implants, so she has implants for both kinds, she 
said that when she listened to music with the regular one, she could not 
hear the soft sounds period, they simply didn't exist, but with the ab one, 
she could hear everything.  She al so said, that the difference in the two 
implants, is that the regular one has only one electrode, and that serves 
the power source and channel for it, so it sounds like it only has one 
channel.  Now, the ab one, has 16 electrodes, and 16 channels, but you have 
to make sure that the clenic you go to is able to do the advanced bionics, 
as some only do the other one, because the ab is more complecated.  I've 
also ben told I would not be able to follow music that I've never heard 
before by the audiologist that tested me, but Deb was telling me that she's 
able to listen to, and follow songs she's never heard before.  I guess what 
it all comes down to, is how well the brain is able to adapt, and how much 
work, time, and energy a person puts in to it.  So, have any of you on this 
list that have implants, are you able to tell the difference between 
purpendicular, and parallel traffic?


-----Original Message-----
From: Catherine Miller
Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2014 11:43 AM
To: nfb-db at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nfb-db] Frustrated with svcreenreaders

April, have you considered cochlear implantation?  I got my first one, and 
it changed my life for the better.  A year later I got my second one.  Blind 
people get priority on the waiting list.  Check to see if you're eligible; 
you've got nothing to lose.  Risk these days is so minimized compared to how 
it was before.  They're being done every day in amazing numbers, and 
surgeons are more skillful; plus surgical instruments are so much more 
developed.  Cochlear implantation is not for everyone; but non-ASL DB need 
to investigate for sure!  Cathy Miller

Sent from my iPad
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