President Obama Signs ‘Thank You’ To Deaf Supporter For The Second Time [View all]

President Barack Obama returned to Prince George Community College on Thursday. A PGCC student named Stephon showed to see him.

Their paths had crossed before, in that very room 18 months earlier. In March 2012, President Obama worked the line at an event on energy policy with Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. Stephon signed “I am proud of you,” and without missing a beat, the president signed back, “Thank you.”

On Thursday, the president continued to explain the benefits of the Affordable Care Act and encouraged young people to sign up for the law’s health insurance exchanges. When he left the stage, Obama walked past Stephon, just like he did 18 months previous. The result was the same: another signed “thank you,” another knowing moment.

This is one of those moments that humanize the office of the presidency:

Thank you Mr President. This means so much to so many.

http://theobamadiary.com/2013/09/26/president-obama-meets-a-friend/

ONE IN FIVE AMERICANS HAS HEARING LOSS

Release Date: 11/14/2011
New nationally representative estimate shows wide scope of problem
Nearly a fifth of all Americans 12 years or older have hearing loss so severe that it may make communication difficult, according to a new study led by Johns Hopkins researchers and published in the Nov. 14 Archives of Internal Medicine. The findings, thought to be the first nationally representative estimate of hearing loss, suggest that many more people than previously thought are affected by this condition.

Study leader Frank Lin, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor with dual appointments in both the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, explains that several previous estimates of hearing loss focused on various cities or populations, such as children or elderly patients. However, no estimate successfully encompassed the entire U.S.

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Lin and his colleagues used data from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Surveys (NHANES), a research program that has periodically gathered health data from thousands of Americans since 1971. The researchers analyzed data from all participants age 12 and over whose hearing was tested during NHANES examinations from 2001 to 2008. Unlike previous estimates, NHANES includes men and women of all races and ages, from cities scattered across the country, so it’s thought to statistically mimic the population of the U.S.

Using the World Health Organization’s definition for hearing loss (not being able to hear sounds of 25 decibels or less in the speech frequencies), the researchers found that overall, about 30 million Americans, or 12.7 percent of the population, had hearing loss in both ears. That number jumps to about 48 million, or 20.3 percent, for people who have hearing loss in at least one ear. These numbers far surpass previous estimates of 21 to 29 million.

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/one_in_five_americans_has_hearing_loss