Connie Mayer
Faculty of Education Professor Connie Mayer, with a team at the Ear Foundation headed by Dr. Sue Archbold, played a key role in the development of an innovative web-based platform developed as the “go-to” destination for online information, resources and learning about hearing loss.
SoundSpace Online, which is the only website of its kind, was launched at a conference in Nottingham, U.K. earlier this summer and is available through the Ear Foundation.
“Hearing loss has a huge, unseen impact on communication whether in childhood or in adulthood,” said Mayer. “Today’s technology can transform this, but all too often the latest information is hard to find. That’s where SoundSpace Online comes in, bringing together the wide range of information and practical resources available on hearing loss, and its impact on the lives of deaf children, young people and adults and its management.”
The site is an evidence-based, comprehensive resource for anyone concerned with issues and questions of hearing loss in a range of areas, including medicine, audiology, education, linguistics and psychology.
SoundSpace Online
SoundSpace Online has eight main sections which offer insight on hearing loss, hearing technologies and scientific medical advances before moving onto the implications of hearing loss on specific groups: special needs, early childhood, school years, higher education and adulthood. Section 1 is available now at www.soundspaceonline.com.
The website was developed in collaboration with people with hearing loss and users of hearing devices, along with their families, friends, industry partners, and professionals and experts from many different disciplines including audiology, education, medicine, e-learning and social work.
SoundSpace Online is supported by Cochlear, the National Institute for Hearing Research (NIHR), Oticon Medical, The University of Nottingham, Medilink and is partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
“Our hope is that people will also use the site to network and to increase the mobilization of knowledge to address issues of importance in the field of hearing loss,” said Mayer.