NTID Video Captures Two Awards

The video, produced to describe the age-related hearing loss research led by Dr. Robert Frisina, director of the International Center on Hearing and Speech Research (ICHSR) housed at NTID, as well as to raise funds, won a gold award in the Council on Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District II Accolades Awards program.

It also earned an Award of Distinction from the Communicator Awards, an organization that recognizes outstanding work in the visual communications field worldwide. From the 3,312 entries, judges give The Award of Distinction to projects that exceed industry standards in production or communication skills.

Actor-producer-director Danny DeVito donated his services to narrate the video, which features people who suffer from age-related hearing loss describing how the quality of their lives has decreased dramatically. DeVito also appears on camera to ask viewers to join him in supporting this important research.

Six years of clinical research at the ICSHR, supported by private contributions and a $5 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, has found that the inability to discriminate sound amongst background noise--the biggest complaint from people 55 and older—is linked to chemical reactions in the brain that change with age.

ICHSR-based research represents one of the nation's largest research efforts for age-related hearing loss, which can cause serious communication problems, resulting in strained relationships at home and in the workplace, and subsequent increased costs to the individual, family and society.

NTID is the first and largest technological college in the world for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. NTID offers educational programs and access and support services to the 1,100 deaf and hard-of-hearing students from around the world who study, live, and socialize with 14,000 hearing students on RIT's Rochester, N.Y. campus. Web address: http://www.rit.edu/NTID.

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