Barbara L. Chertok

Barbara L. Chertok serves on the National Advisory Board of the American Hearing Research Foundation. Ms. Chertok was suddenly deafened at age 21 due to Cogan’s Syndrome, an autoimmune disease. She has been a successful cochlear implant user since 1998 and founded two cochlear implant support groups in Florida.
Ms. Chertok is a freelance writer for journals related to hearing loss. She was a lipreading teacher for ten years and is a longtime advocate for the rights of people with hearing loss through writing, consulting and lecturing. She has lectured at conferences and conventions both in the United States and abroad, taking her to Israel and Australia.
Ms. Chertok was certified in 1979 as a Reverse/Oral Interpreter (visual-to-spoken). In 1982 she was selected as the first person with a hearing loss to serve on a jury in Maryland. She was assisted in the courtroom by an Oral Interpreter who sat in the jury box with her and whose lips she read for the duration of the trial. Ms. Chertok is listed in 1995/96 Marquis’ Who’s Who of American Women.