Friday, December 16, 2005

Lower the Decibel (dB) Minimum?

Continued from my previous blog on Idaho School for the Deaf (ISDB).

I did a bit of asking around and checked online to see what makes Florida School for the Deaf and Blind (FSDB) stand out of other state residential schools. You may not know this but I believe that they are the largest deaf and blind school in America, I checked their website, they have nearly 800 students.

I was told of two things, Florida has a law where they promote deaf and blind students to attend FSDB over public schools and FSDB has the ability to recruit students whereas other schools don't have that ability.

Both things appear to be untrue because I have not found concrete proof of this. If any of you have further information, please do comment and please do send me a link if available.

BUT, I did find something that amazed me! The admission criteria to FSDB can be found here. Their decibel (dB) minimum for enrollment is at 30. Whereas I believe other schools decibel (dB) minimum is at 55, which is also the minimum requirement to be eligible for the Deaflympics.

To gain a better understanding of what the number of decibels (dB) represents.

Mild hearing loss: for adults - between 25 and 40 (dB), for children - between 15 to 40 (db)
Moderate hearing loss: between 41 and 55 (db)
Moderately severe hearing loss: between 56 to 70 (dB)
Severe hearing loss: between 71 to 90 (dB)
Profound hearing loss: 90 (dB) or greater.

Based on the findings that FSDB is the largest deaf and blind school in America and their minimum decibel for enrollment is at 30. This tells us that all other deaf schools should lower their minimum decibel requirements to increase enrollment.

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