I read that the American Red Cross gets flooded with requests for bed-shaker/strobe alarms for deaf and HoH households, but they cost $250–300 and they can only install a handful a year. After one local news story, 200 households requested one.

So I made a cheaper version. It's a tiny computer (a micro:bit) that just listens for the smoke alarm's beep and flashes a bright strobe when it hears it. It works with whatever alarm is already on your ceiling — no pairing, no special transmitter — because every US smoke alarm is legally required to beep in the same rhythm.

Being honest: this is a prototype, not a certified product. It is NOT UL-listed (that costs tens of thousands of dollars) so it should be used alongside a real alarm, never instead of one. I'm a high school student and I'm sharing it open-source in case it's useful or someone wants to build on it.

Would love feedback from people who actually use strobe/shaker alarms — what works, what doesn't, what I'm missing.

I am currently 21 weeks pregnant with my first child. This will be my mother's first grandchild. She desperately wants to take care of the baby day and night when myself and my husband need a little helping hand. Having a grandchild to care for is what she's been dreaming of for years. But she's worried about the night time that she won't be able to because when she takes her cochlear off to sleep she is completely deaf. She's toying around with wearing it 24 hours a day but it's so uncomfortable for her she doesn't know if it will work out.

Do any deaf parents or grandparents have tips on what we can do to help my mom live out her grandma dreams?

I thought it would be fitting to post about Kaylee Hottle, the Deaf actress that tragically passed this week.

I have never interacted with her but I was in the same room as her at a Deaf event in Austin. I think I asked my kids if they wanted to meet her but they wanted to do something else. I've been in a solemn mood all day. Texas School for the Deaf has made this post about her passing.

It is with profound sadness that we share the heartbreaking news that one of our TSD seniors, Kaylee Hottle, tragically passed away yesterday in a car accident in Frederick, Maryland.