Many of you are probably not aware that I am hearing impaired and yet, many of you are interested in reading more about my impairment.

I was born with a hearing impairment as a result of a hospital mix up because my mother had the Rh factor. In the days before drugs were available to combat an resistance due to incompatibilities between one parent being type "negative" and the other being type "positive", the only treatment was a blood transfusion as soon as the baby is delivered. Unfortunately, the hospital transfused the wrong type and the adverse reaction affected my hearing. My parents never knew that I couldn't hear until I was in the first grade. I had to be a pretty smart baby to be able to survive 6 years without hearing. At that time, I was fitted with my first hearing aid - a Zenith body aid which was contained within a harness that I wore under my shirt. As time progressed it wasn't until in my teenage years that I was finally able to relieve myself of this cumbersome box which stuck my shirt out at the middle of my chest. And, to top it all, being a teenager of above average fit and looks, it certainly wasn't a pretty sight around the beach!

It turned out that my hearing aid dispenser realized that I did not need this big powerful boxy amplifier. With a series of tests, he was able to determine that all I needed was something powerful enough to help me with my primary mode of communicating - lip-reading. Hence, my first behind-the-ear hearing aid. And, I have been wearing this type of aid since then.

In the real sense of the word, my eyes are really my ears. Being blessed with wonderful parents and sister, I was afforded the best possible solution to my loss. My parents enrolled me in a special program that was run by Albany Medical Center in collaboration with the Albany Public School system. This program was akin to mainstreaming. In addition to my regular daily curriculum, I had two special classes - speech therapy and lip-reading. The speech therapy was designed to make up for the lost time during which I didn't hear and therefore, didn't learn to speak properly during my infant and toddler years. And, the lip-reading was designed to replace my hearing.

People have wondered why I still cannot hear although I am fitted with a hearing aid. I can "hear" but I simply cannot hear. The damage that was done affected my auditory nerves to a point where the signal entering my ear, by the way of the hearing aid, is not distinguishable by the brain. That is, almost everything that goes in my ear is interpreted by the brain as noise. And as a result, it is almost impossible for me to use the telephone.

How I communicate:

My primary mode of communicating is lip-reading and requires the other person and I be face-to-face. Even sometimes, this can be difficult. People and conversations can move around before I have a chance to face the speaker; sometimes there is gesturing or something that blocks my view of the speaker; other times the speaker is either talking too fast or talks in such a way that the words are not clearly formed for me to lip-read. One syllable words are the ones I usually have the most difficulty with and then, there are words which look/sound alike such as their/there and bat/pat.

When speaking with me, I would greatly appreciate if you would:
  face me directly.
  avoid covering your mouth.
  talk slowly, if necessary.
  understand that the more people in the conversation, the more difficult it can be.
  understand that the more background noise there is, the more difficult it can be.
  have patience!

Ways to communicate with me:

Communicating with me, if not face-to-face, can be difficult and frustrating. Because my auditory training concentrated on giving me the ability to lip-read and because my auditory nerves were damaged beyond the point where intelligent sound cannot be interpreted by the brain, the use of the telephone is extremely difficult and almost impossible. Even with those whom I have conversed all my life. With the Internet, I have alternative means.

Telephone
Sometimes, conversations simply require the use of the telephone. I have many wonderful understanding friends and family who help me with this. With the use of a speakerphone, the conversation is with me in the middle. Someone who is with me would lip synch (my wife can do a wonderful imitation of Milli Vanilli) the speaker's words. And, I'll either speak or respond in a normal fashion.

Internet e-mail
I can be reached at my personal e-mail address.

Internet Messenger
I can be found on Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger or AOL Instant Messenger. You could probably catch me on one of these when I am not working...or sleeping and eating. Look for me as samspritzer or better yet, e-mail me, tell me where to look for you and what your identity is.

Telecommunications Device of the Deaf (TTD/TTY)
This is a special teletype device where a person can use a TTD/TTY to connect to another TTD/TTY. This is like a combination telephone and typewriter with 2 cups where the phone headset sits in. Conversations on these are somewhat slow as that only one person can type at any given time. I have one at home but rarely use it since the only other person that I call and has a TTD/TTY is my mother.

Other
  There are other ways of communicating with me besides the above which I don't use for one reason or another. These include:
  the telephone company relay service which is where a third party acts as a go-between in relaying messages between the callers. This service is very slow, prone to errors and it is hard to hold a private conversation.
  alphanumerical pager which has a display very much like a text answering machine. Unfortunately, the cost of these devices and the service can be pretty high.
  internet video teleconferencing (also known as WebCam). The cost of the hardware is pretty expensive and the quality of the picture is totally dependent on the strength of your connection which in most cases, is not good enough for the quality of picture that will allow me to lip-read.