Lyndall Huffman is living in a world that’s slowly fading. As a victim of Usher Syndrome, an incurable genetic disorder, she’s helpless against the gradual loss of hearing and vision that comes with the territory. But as a bright and ambitious young woman with a message to share about the dangers to hearing in today’s society, she’s anything but powerless.
Huffman faced many challenges growing up as a result of her hearing issues. Her mind would wander in class because she couldn’t hear her teachers well, and people would shun her because she wouldn’t respond when they spoke to her. They thought she was conceited, but she simply couldn’t hear what they were saying.
“Before I got a hearing aid, people thought I was a snob. When someone would say something to me and I wouldn’t respond, they’d think I was full of myself and then ignore me when I tried to be nice. It closed me off in social situations,” she says.
Huffman finally got hearing aids when she was a senior in high school. It made a big difference.
“Before I got my hearing aids, no one knew I had a hearing problem. It’s an invisible disability. But now I know what’s going on around me, and people are aware of my issue,” she says.
The Assistive Technology Center at Signal Centers, a Chattanooga-based nonprofit, helped Huffman to acquire the equipment that allows her to hear better. One device, called a Pocket Talker, connects to a telecoil neckloop that transmits audio wirelessly to her hearing aids. Huffman can attach the device to her belt or hold it in her hand to hear nearby conversation.
While Huffman is demonstrating the Pocket Talker, lights in the Technology Center begin to blink, and a circular device on a table near her starts to rattle. Assistive Technology Specialist Mitzi Davenport points to the Clarity AlertMaster as the source of the commotion, and says it’s connected to a wireless network that lets her know a client needs assistance. A variety of devices can be networked to an AlertMaster, including baby monitors, doorbells, motion detectors, smoke detectors and more.
“We had two deaf clients who had a hearing child. They connected a baby monitor to their AlertMaster so their bed would shake and wake them up whenever their baby cried,” she says.
The Technology Center has other devices available for demonstrating to people who are deaf and hard of hearing, including a Motiva, a device that picks up what one person says and wirelessly transmits it to another. For example, a teacher in a classroom could wear the microphone, and a student could wear the receiver.
“This would have been great for my college lectures, but I didn’t have the funding,” Huffman says.
The Technology Center doesn’t give away or sell the equipment that will help its clients hear better; rather, its staff demonstrates products and does hearing assessments to size up a person’s needs. The individual can then purchase the equipment that will help him or her from a vendor.
“We also do assessments for Rehabilitation Services of Tennessee. In those cases, the State purchases the devices. Businesses have also utilized us to help employees who are hard of hearing function better on the job,” Davenport says.
The Technology Center does have some equipment it can loan to individuals who are not vocational rehabilitation clients and can’t afford to purchase the devices on their own.
As the world around Huffman opened up for the first time, she made the most of the opportunities her improved hearing presented. She earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing at East Tennessee State University, and then went through vocational rehabilitation at Signal Centers. Huffman then became a VISTA volunteer at Signal Centers through AmeriCorps, a national service program designed to fight poverty.
Today, Huffman is using her marketing skills to help the Technology Center spread the word about its services, including its expos, which are designed to raise awareness about the technology that’s available to help deaf people, senior citizens, returning soldiers and more.
As part of her yearlong, full-time commitment to Signal Centers, Huffman developed a free packet designed to help people avoid noise-induced hearing loss. Complete with two earplugs, capable of reducing audio levels in conditions as extreme as a NASCAR race, and an instruction card, the kit is available to anyone who would like one.
“Noise-induced hearing loss is going to be a big problem for my generation because of ear buds. Ear buds aren’t the best things to wear when listening to an iPod (or another MP3 player) because they don’t block outside noise, so you crank up the volume to hear the music.
“That’s bad for your ears, especially when you listen for more than an hour. It would be better to listen with noise-cancelling earphones or ear buds that have foam. When people who are my age reach 30 or 40, a lot of them are going to have noise-induced hearing loss, and they’re going to need amplified hearing products,” she says.
Even with her hearing aids and other devices, Huffman still has her share of challenges. She has a hard time holding conversations with people who speak quietly, and when a siren is approaching, she’s unable to determine its bearing. When it comes to entertainment, she can’t understand the words of most pop songs because the music overpowers the lyrics, and she rarely goes to the movies because she has difficulty hearing the dialogue.
“I’ve become dependent on closed captioning and subtitles. I don’t like having to rely on technology, but it’s something I have to get used to,” she says.
Moving forward, Huffman plans to find a marketing job and to continue to spread the word about noise-induced hearing loss.
“I want to protect the hearing I have while I still have it, and I want to encourage others to do the same,” she says.
For more information about the Technology Center, visit www.signalcenters.org, click on “Programs” and select “Assistive Technology.”