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Scientists with Hearing Loss
“The NIDCD should lead the NIH in efforts to recruit and train deaf investigators and clinicians and to assertively pursue the recruitment and research of individuals with communication disorders. Too often deafness and com- munication disorders have been grounds for employment discrimination. The NIDCD has a special responsibility to assure that these citizens are offered equal opportunity to be included in the national biomedical enterprise.”
This enabled me to realize that I could become a role model for young people with hearing loss. Meeting Henry and Pe- ter cemented my calling. My research in the auditory system began with models of cochlear micromechanics and now focuses on modeling the primary and secondary auditory cortices. I also mentored students and peers with hearing loss in STEMM. In 2015, these efforts were recognized with my receiving a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) from President Obama.
Today, more young people who benefited from early diag- nosis and intervention with hearing aids and/or cochlear implants are now entering college. Many want to study the auditory system to pay forward to society. The PAESMEM spurred me to establish, with the cooperation of AG Bell, STEMM for Students with Hearing Loss to Engage in Au- ditory Research (STEMM-HEAR; deafearscientists.org) na- tionwide. In recent summers, students worked at the Oregon Health and Science University, Portland; Stanford Univer- sity, Stanford, CA; the University of Minnesota, Minneapo- lis; the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; and JHU. STEMM-HEAR exploits the fact that hearing research is at the interface of the STEMM disciplines and is a perfect stepping stone to STEMM. STEMM-HEAR is now explor- ing at how off-the-shelf speech-to-text technologies such as Google Live Transcribe and Microsoft Translator can be used to widen access in STEMM (Ratnanather, 2017).
Peter S. Steyger
Matriculating into the University of Manchester, Manches- ter, UK, in 1981 was a moment of personal and academic lib- eration. Higher education settings had seemingly embraced diversity, however imperfectly, based on academic merit. Fi- nally, I could ask academic questions without embarrassing teachers lacking definitive answers. Indeed, asking questions where answers are uncertain or conventional wisdom insuf- ficient led to praise from professors and the confidence to ex- plore further, particularly via microscopy in my case. None- theless, I remained a “solitaire,” the only deaf undergraduate
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in the zoology class of 1984 and indeed of all undergraduates in biological sciences between 1981 and 1984.
One strategy deaf individuals using LSL use is to read vora- ciously (to compensate for missed verbal information), and I had subscribed to New Scientist. An issue in 1986 invited applications to investigate ototoxicity (the origin of my own hearing loss as an infant) using microscopy under the direc- tion of Carole Hackney and David Furness at Keele Univer- sity, Staffordshire, UK. That synergy of microscopy, ototoxic- ity, and personal experience was electrifying and continues to this day. This synergy also propels other researchers with hearing loss to answer important questions underlying hear- ing loss. These answers need to make rational sense and not just satisfy researchers with typical hearing who take audi- tory proficiency for granted. As our understanding of the mechanisms of hearing loss grows, the more we recognize the subtler ways hearing loss impacts each of us personally or those we hold dear as well as society in general. Accessibility and effective mentorship are vital for inclusion and growth during university and postdoctoral training.
I now experience age-related hearing because new hearing technologies are personally adopted and am currently bi- modal, using a CI in one ear and connected via Bluetooth to a hearing aid in the other. Each technological advance enabled the acquisition of new auditory skills, such as sound direction- ality and greater recognition of additional environmental or speech cues, contrasting with peers with age-related hearing loss unable or unwilling to adopt advances in hearing technol- ogy. Each advance in accessibility, mentorship, and technology accelerates the career trajectories of aided individuals. With the acquisition of each new auditory skill, I marvel anew about how sound enlivens the human experience.
Brad N. Buran
My parents began using Cued Speech with me following my diagnosis of profound sensorineural hearing loss at 14 months of age. Cued Speech uses handshapes and hand placements to provide visual contrast between sounds that appear the same on the lips. Because Cued Speech provides phonemic visualization of speech, I learned English as a na- tive speaker. Although I received bilateral cochlear implants as a young adult, I still rely on visual forms of communica- tion to supplement the auditory input from the implants.
Interested in learning more about my deafness, I studied in- ner ear development in Doris Wu’s laboratory at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), Bethesda, MD, as an intern during high school.