hard of hearing. difficult relationship of the weak of hearing with the most followed means of communication: television and radio

difficult relationship of the weak of hearing with the most followed means of communication: television and radio




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Reggio Emilia, April 14th 2012
A conference in Reggio Emilia takes stock of the solutions and brings together otorino specialists, representatives of the Rai Region and Social Secretariat, scientific societies of the sector and associations

Statistics show that hearing impairment in the population continues to rise due to causes due to aging, noise pollution, voluptuous habits.
12% of Italians, about 8 million people, suffer from mild and moderate hearing loss, as well as the appearance of whistles, buzzes and distortions in auditory perception.
In particular it suffers 4% in the range between 13 and 45 years and 14% in that between 46 and 60 years. To these are added over half a million adults suffering from severe disabling deafness.

It happens very frequently that the first symptom that helps to recognize a deficit - the otorino specialists explain - is the difficulty in listening to the television and the radio.

Today at the Hotel Astoria, the day of training organized by the Otorinolaryngology Facility of the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital Company, directed by dr. Verter Barbieri, entitled: Music Radio Television and the Weak of Udito, addressed to audioprostysists, audiometrists, speech therapists, otorino specialists, audiologists and phonologists.
The training event, organized by the specialist audiologist Giovanni Bianchin, sees the involvement of the sponsors: the Rai Social Action Department, represented by the Director Carlo Romeo, who has the task of defining and proposing initiatives on social issues both at the external that within the broadcasting and multimedia programming, also in collaboration with associations and institutions, and the Regional RAI, represented by the Director Fabrizio Binacchi.

40-50% of the population over the age of 60 are referred to the doctor, reporting having problems due to the imperfect reception of the television sound message.
It was this evidence, in the presence of hearing losses not limiting the subject in all other areas and such as not to require therapeutic subsidies such as hearing aids or other devices, to induce specialists to a specific analysis.

The specialists took into consideration the quality of television products from a strictly audiological point of view, with the intent of understanding whether the arising of difficulties was due to production rather than to the reception of sound. And if it were possible to adapt the sound quality to the needs of the weak of hearing, whose perception of verbal language is conditioned by variables such as: speed, articulation of phonetic and rhythmic traits, the vocal message-background noise ratio, the possibility of predict and anticipate based on the communication context and topic, as well as variables related to memory and logic.

The presentation at Rai Regionale, by the audiologists specialists of the Arcispedale Otorhinolaryngology Structure, of the results that emerged from the survey led to an active involvement of the Directorate which extended to the Rai Social Action Department.

The importance of the analysis is linked to the role that radio and even more television have in the daily lives of most people, as they are sources of information and entertainment, even in substitution of social relationships that are thinning with age .

The various formal measures, often disregarded by the majority of programs produced and broadcast, which could be introduced by radio and television broadcasters to facilitate listening by people with hearing difficulties, will be the subject of further study during the sessions of the day.


Specific space will be dedicated in the formative day to music that is distinguished by different frequencies compared to those of the voice. It is used in the rehabilitation of deafness and produces vibrations that, beyond the ears, also the body feels.

THE PRESS OFFICE

DEEPENING
IPOACUSIA AND TELEVISION

Television is the most used means of communication thanks to the immediacy and strength of the image. Since the 1960s he has assumed the role of irreplaceable means of information, culture and entertainment, becoming an integral part of the daily lives of most people.
The news programs represent today the first source of information followed, for the younger age groups of the population, from sources available on the internet and, for adults, from newspapers-radio.
The segment of the population with reduced or difficult extradamestica activity linked to the advanced age or to the precarious state of health uses the television medium as an instrument of family participation or as main contact with the outside world.
Hearing problems (hearing loss, whistling, buzzing, distorted perceptions) are growing and according to recent estimates will increase by 2% in 10 years. In Italy, 8 million people suffer from hearing disorders, 4% already from 13 to 45 years, 14% from 45 to 64 years, while half a million adults suffer from severe disabling deafness.
Definite medium-severe deafness (deaf-mutism is a small percentage) represents 30.1% of all forms of disability (motor disability 24.7%, mental disability 8.2%, blindness 6.1%).
With differences among the age groups, it is estimated that 40-50% of the population over the age of 60 report having difficulty in following the television programs mainly due to the imperfect reception of the sound message.
To make the means of communication more accessible to the "weak hearing" population, rather than insisting on the correction of hearing loss it would be important to take into account formal measures often disregarded by the majority of programs currently produced by national and local networks.
The audio-phoniatric analysis developed by the team of the Otorinolarongarial Structure of the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital of Reggio Emilia, in particular by Dr. Patrizia Formigoni, has developed some simple features starting from the limits found.
For a better usability by all listeners, the verbal production of the television speaker should, according to specialists, respect the following rules:

    clear articulated articulation with constant voice range
    good labio-oral visibility without hypo or hyperarticulation of single strokes
    underlining the salient features of the sentence
    appropriate rhythm to accents
    sentences of limited length, without idiomatic or slang forms
    organicity and sequentiality of the speech

No less important, for the same purpose, are the shooting conditions that must:

     place the speaker in full light, in the foreground and in the front position
     allow the simultaneous viewing of other interlocutors
     maintain a constant level of acoustic amplification
     avoiding vocal overlaps

The problem of the relationship between television and population with hearing disorders is alive throughout Europe.
The BBC subtitles 100% of television broadcasts, while in Italy only 18% of transmissions are provided with subtitles; The VOICE project of the European Union was created to spread the use of subtitles in television broadcasts, even if, detecting specialists, this solution has as its main recipients the profound deaf. Furthermore, the use of sign language is still not widespread in the television schedule.

Validity is recognized, in terms of accessibility to the media for impaired audiences, to the Respeaking technique, whose characteristic is the real-time reworking of the speech and its re-presentation in essential subtitles.
A certain estimate, on a national scale, of those who receive a television program, and that are expected to be reduced to a certain amount of discomfort. well as widen and facilitate the use of subtitles that are still not widespread