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Helen Keller said, "I am just as deaf as I am blind. The problems of deafness are
deeper and more complex, if not more important than those of blindness." In an
attempt to educate the public and to serve the hearing impaired, speech action and work
with the deaf has been a program of the association since 1971.
Facts on Deafness and Hearing Impairment
- The incidence of hearing loss is increasing in spite of efforts to control it.
- Noise pollution is increasingly becoming a critical problem.
- The incidence of hearing problems in premature and high-risk babies is nearly seven
times that in babies of normal, full-term deliveries.
- Young children can experience hearing loss as a consequence of high fevers, measles,
meningitis (increasing incidence) or a severe blow to the head.
- The increasing age of the population is probably the greatest single factor for the
higher incidence of hearing loss. The elderly have a far higher percentage of
sensorineural deafness. However, because damage to the ear is accumulative in nature, many
young people are also at risk: they are the generation accustomed to headphone radios and
loud music.
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