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- Hit the road to cheap motoring by switching to an electric car
- Overcoming disability as a barrier to college education
- Irish Sign Language in schools for deaf children
- Connected: How a Cochlear Implant Made Me More Deaf
- When signing is singing
- Classic cars and the NCT
- IT conversion courses – not all employers are converts
- Open Days: smoothing the way to third level
- Live captioning phone app on the way
Author Archives: admin
Confessions of a haggler
The very idea of bargaining sends some shoppers into a cold sweat — but there are savings to be made if you know how, writes John Cradden For the average Irish consumer, haggling is still a bit of a dirty word. Many of us are reluctant to roll up our sleeves and give it a […]
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A steeper mountain to climb
Bless me father, for it’s a full week since I last posted. It’s been two weeks since my switch-on and while all is fine, I’m realising I have a bit more of a mountain to climb than I thought in terms of reaching the optimum benefit from this CI. Of course, what everyone has been repeating […]
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An understated moment
If you’ve been following my updates on the subject of cochlear implants, and since it’s been over five days since my much-hyped CI activation, you may be dying to know how I got on. Or maybe not. But here it is anyway. The first thing to say is that I now fully understand why people […]
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Start me up
Activation is scheduled for 2pm today. Quite late in the day. I’d prefer if it was in the morning time. I’m so ready to go I can’t concentrate on my work this morning, even with a deadline looming large. I managed to sleep fine though, surprisingly enough. Start me up.
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Oh dear, this is not what i wanted to hear…
From the website of the company that made my implant, and which is the very same one that is the subject of this recently announced action: http://funnyoldlife.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/3dee13b8-dccb-11e0-bdec-3e9a655fb7c9_cochlearmonday.pdf (via Tina Lannin’s blog: I Look So I Can Hear.) This follows a major recall by another cochlear implant maker, Advanced Bionics, which it is only just emerging […]
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Mechanical brain to meet computer hearing
When you explain to people what happens when a cochlear implant is activated for the first time, it probably does sound very unnerving (literally, as it’s my auditory nerve that will be subjected to a merciless cascade of electrical stimulation). It certainly is for me, but at the same time I find there is something […]
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Don’t skimp on car maintenance
Our cars are getting older, but looking after them needn’t cost the earth, writes John Cradden Thursday September 08 2011 It will probably come as no surprise to learn that our cars are getting older. After all, new car sales fell off a cliff in 2009, and only recovered last year thanks to the scrappage […]
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To be a cyborg, or not to be a cyborg, that is the question.
Lots of cochlear implantees often talk about becoming ‘cyborgs’ as a result of getting their cochlear implant. Most do so for comic effect, others because they think it sounds cooler than the term ‘prosthetic’ (which is essentially what a CI is), but others are deadly serious. The term isn’t very useful as a label, though, […]
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A week is too long when you’re waiting to be switched on
OK, just over a week to go. I’m battling with a mix of emotions, including excitement, trepidation and frustration. The frustration comes out of the increasing feeling that my life is kind of on hold, partly because I only have one ear together with a hearing aid that is providing, at best, 20% hearing. I […]
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Early Christmas shopping – is there any point?