You may remember our recent item on classroom acoustics on See Hear. Well apparently noisy classrooms can affect youngsters' hearing as well as reading ability, scientists have claimed.
Kids with Dyslexia have difficulty listening to teachers above background classroom noise. The findings could see new ways of diagnosing sufferers based on hearing tests. It may also see them put at the front of class or provided with wireless devices to pick up information better.
Read more about this story at the Daily Mirror
In Zambia, that is.
The Zambia Agency for Persons with Disability (ZAPD) has expressed worry at the increased number of sign language interpreters who have commercialised the language.
ZAPD Director General, Charles Mwape says interpreters have abused the language and are making profit out of it at the expense of the deaf.
He says government, in conjunction with the agency, is working towards developing a policy that will regulate the conduct of interpreters so that sign language is not abused.
Well, according to this rather vague article anyway, which doesn't specify exactly how these interpreters are abusing the language. But it's good to see that Zambia is taking positive steps.
http://www.lusakatimes.com/?p=19917
The murder trial of a former Nazi SS trooper was postponed yesterday because the hard-of-hearing defendant was struggling to follow proceedings.
Heinrich Boere, 88, is on trial in the town of Aachen, accused of killing three civilians in German-occupied Netherlands during World War II.
Presiding judge Gerd Nohl said the case would only continue once Boere was equipped with a hearing aid, in response to a request by his lawyers.
The defense was criticised for trying to delay the trial, after Boere's hearing problems cropped up unexpectedly. Asked the previous day whether he had been able to hear the charges read against him, Boere had answered, "No."
Boere is sixth on a list of the 10 most wanted Nazi war criminals issued by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8338817.stm
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