HLAA Convention 2011 Special: Exhibits #1

[Guest guest]

NVRC News - June 20, 2011

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HLAA Exhibits #1

By Bonnie O'Leary, 6/20/11

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)

ASHA is the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for

145,000 members and affiliates in the United States and internationally who

are speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and speech, language, and

hearing scientists. Whew! If, like me, you visited their website over the

years, you might have found yourself frustrated not to be able to get to the

" good " stuff unless you were a member of one of these professions. But in

my conversation with Farrell, who is ASHA's Associate Director,

Audiology Professional Practices, I learned that there are now new resources

on the ASHA website for consumers.

I visited the website at www.asha.org and on the left of the home page I

found information for " the public " . This site has been revamped with a

focus on improving the health literacy of ASHA's web pages. There is also a

consumer newsletter available on their website, as well as a search feature

for audiologists. In addition, there is an Audiology Information Series

which covers topics such as Tinnitus; Type, Degree, and Configuration of

Hearing Loss; Cochlear Implants; Children and Hearing Aids; Dizziness and

Balance; Noise; Ototoxic Medications; Adult Audiologic/Aural Rehabilitation,

and many others.

emphasized that ASHA is supporting the Hearing Aid Assistance Tax

Credit Act, which would provide assistance to those most in need of hearing

aids but are unable to afford them. It targets individuals who are retired

or approaching retirement (55+), and families of children with hearing loss.

While it does not cover the full cost of hearing aids, it is meant to

provide a measure of financial assistance to those who are most in need.

ASHA was founded in 1925, and its headquarters is currently in Rockville,

MD. If you have questions for , you can contact him at

pfarrell@....

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American Academy of Audiology (AAA)

I talked with Christy Hanson, Marketing Manager for the Academy, who was

excited to share the news with our readers that, in April of this year, the

AAA's new Pediatric Audiology Specialty Certification was launched. This

specialty focuses on " The Whole Child - The Whole Picture " , and audiologists

with this certification will become primary referral destinations for

children with audio-vestibular disorders and hearing loss. This new

specialty is open to all audiologists, not just members of AAA, and is in

addition to their cochlear implant specialty certification.

Christy also directed me to www.howsyourhearing.org, a user-friendly web

site which offers topics about hearing health for consumers. Through this

site consumers can locate the " Find an Audiologist " directory, and

consumer-friendly articles from Audiology Today.

AAA is the world's largest professional organization of, by, and for

audiologists. Founded in 1988, it has 11,000 members and its main office is

in Reston, VA. Their phone number is 1-800-AAA-2336.

AAA is supporting two legislative issues: the Hearing Aid Assistance Tax

Credit Act, and the Medicare Hearing Health Care Enhancement Act of 2011.

The latter would allow Medicare beneficiaries the option of going directly

to a qualified audiologist for hearing and balance diagnostic tests.

Currently, Medicare requires that beneficiaries with hearing loss or balance

disorders obtain a physician referral before seeing an audiologist. If

you're interested in more information about AAA, visit their website at

www.audiology.org, or contact Christy at chanson@....

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