by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Access + Ability is the name of an exhibit open now at the Cooper Hewitt design museum in New York City.
This column in the New York Times discusses some of the many issues involved in designing products and increasingly apps to assist those with disabilities.
The author doesn’t mention one such app which I think will be a great help to those of us with auditory disorders–hearing loss, tinnitus, and hyperacusis–namely, Greg Scott’s free SoundPrint app, which allows measurement of sound levels in restaurants and bars and then posting this information for that specific restaurant or bar on a publicly accessible site.
I think it’s great that people with disabilities are being helped both by laws requiring modifications to make public places accessible to them, and now by new technologies. But it’s better to avoid a disability if one can. Driving safely in a safety-rated vehicle and wearing a seat belt is one way of reducing the likelihood of serious physical injury from a motor vehicle crash. Avoiding loud noise and wearing hearing protection reduces the danger of noise-induced hearing loss, the most common type of hearing loss.
Protect your ears. Like your eyes and knees, God only gave you two of them!
DISCLOSURE: I serve as Medical Advisor for SoundPrint.
