CDS Associate Director Wins International Award

Associate Director Jean Johnson of the College of Education Center on Disability Studies (CDS) won best poster presentation at the First International Congress on Family-Centered Early Intervention for Infants and Toddlers who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. Her presentation focused on the challenges in serving children with hearing loss on rural or remote Pacific Islands. Held in Bad Ischl, Austria, the congress hosted over 400 participants from 37 different countries.

The event provided Johnson with “an incredible opportunity to hear the latest research and exciting results that are being obtained through fitting young deaf children with cochlear implants,” she explained.

A life-long advocate of education, health, support, and justice for the disability community, Johnson received the Antonia Brancia Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence at the 2011 National Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

Johnson traveled from Austria to Italy to attend another event, titled Beyond Newborn Hearing Screening: Infant and Childhood Hearing in Science and Clinical Practice, where she followed the keynote address with her presentation on the work and challenges of bringing the latest technology to children in the Pacific.

“A major purpose in attending both meetings was to recruit personnel to assist in providing services in the Pacific Islands,” Johnson said.