Hear This Organization - Hearing Loss Problem Statement

Hearing Loss is America's Invisible Disability

Hearing loss, of varying degrees, affects over 28 million people in the United States. About 1/3 of these cases have been caused by loud noise. Additionally, an estimated 30 million Americans are at risk of permanently damaging their hearing because of loud noise in the workplace, at home, and in recreational settings. In fact, noise-induced hearing loss is the most common work-related disability. Hearing loss affects approximately 10% of the population in America today, and this figure is expected to increase quite significantly in the next decade due to an aging population.

Over 4,000 infants are born deaf every year in America. Over 12,000 babies leave the hospital every year with undetected hearing loss due to a lack of a universal newborn hearing screening, a simple $40 test that is easy to perform on any infant. An estimated 500,000 young children develop profound hearing loss prior to learning a spoken language. Sensorineural hearing loss is one of the most prevalent disabling conditions in the United States. It can harm an individual's physical, cognitive, behavioral and social functioning. The cause is a problem in the cochlea or auditory nerve, the parts of the ear that help sound impulses reach the brain.

The only medical intervention that restores aspects of hearing for severely to profoundly deaf individuals (of who receive little to no benefit from hearing aids) is the cochlear implant. Implantation of this auditory device is extremely low among those who could benefit. About 28,000 children and adults in the United States currently use an implant to hear. Worldwide that figure is about 70,000. The Journal of American Medical Association published an August 2000 article by Dr. AK Cheng that an estimated 600,000 to 1 million people in the United States could benefit from this innovative medical device that restores sound from silence.

Cochlear implants have been used successfully for more than a decade and help thousands of profoundly hearing impaired children and adults. Many cochlear implant users are able to understand speech and in many cases use a conventional telephone. A new study conducted at John Hopkins University has determined that cochlear implants in profoundly deaf children have had a positive affect on quality of life with reasonable expense, and with a net savings to society. The cost to society of someone who develops profound deafness as a young child is believed to be over $1 million dollars. This figure includes special education, assistive services and reduced work productivity. These numbers do not take into account the human cost of deafness, which is immeasurable. It takes a harrowing emotional toll of social isolation imposed by difficulty in hearing and communication. This directly affects one's quality of life as it impairs the ability to interact at home and in the world at large. While many deaf and hard of hearing people learn sign language, it isn't a universal language shared by most of the population, therefore it has it's limitations. Hence, this technology provides tremendous long term emotional and financial benefits to deaf and profoundly hearing-impaired individuals.