Gael Hannan

Gael Hannan is an author, speaker and advocate on hearing loss issues. In addition to her weekly blog at the Better Hearing Consumer, which has a passionate international following, Gael has written two acclaimed books, “The Way I Hear It: A Life with Hearing Loss”and “Hear & Beyond: Live Skillfully with Hearing Loss”, written with Shari Eberts. She is regularly invited to present her uniquely humorous and insightful work to appreciative audiences around the world. Gael has received many awards for her work that advocates for individuals to become more knowledgeable and successful at dealing with their hearing loss and a more inclusive society for them to live in.

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Do Your Friends Understand Your Hearing Loss?

Do your friends understand your hearing loss? As opposed to: do your friends understand that you have hearing loss? Even though your pals might know you use hearing aids or have a cochlear implant, whether they truly ‘get it’ is another issue. I thought after decades of communication with my friends and closest family members (such as the Hearing

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What You Really Need to Ask Your Audiologist

Last week, I gave one of my favorite types of presentations – to first year Audiology university students. My goal is always the same – let these future audiologists know about all the other stuff that we, their future clients, need to know. These chunks of knowledge, nurtured over time, will make journey with hearing loss easier. Stuff like:

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Hearing Loss – It’s a Way of Living

When hearing loss enters our lives, When it takes hold and grows roots, It becomes more than a medical condition or disability. It transforms into a way of living, of being. Hearing loss is what we have, not by choice, But because we are individual, organic creatures, vulnerable to change. So, we have it and will have it until

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When Asked to Repeat Yourself, You Have Options

The 10 most used words in the English language are the, be, to, of, and, a, in, that, have, and I. For people with hearing loss, however, this list might include the words pardon, what or even huh – yes, it’s in the dictionary! We use them frequently because we ask people to repeat themselves frequently. What? Wha? Huh?

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Defying the Silence: Making Music Mine Again

by Kerry Roberts Born in 1970 in rural Newfoundland, I had a genetic hearing impairment that was not immediately identified. In my earliest years, the world sounded whole. I laughed, played, and listened, as well as any child might! When my music-making family came together, the music was always present for me in a different way. It lived quietly

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Good For Me! (Hearing Loss Version)

Are you good at congratulating yourself? How often do you tell yourself, hey, I did that, Good for Me! For better mental health, we need to pat ourselves on the back more often, especially for following through on a positive intention. There are qualifications to this, however. If I beat my grandson at cribbage (which I just did), I

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You Can Hear THAT? Seriously?

Whenever someone hears a sound that’s outside my range of hearing or vision – a bird, perhaps, a creature skittering in the walls, a distant vehicle noise – my go-to reaction is amazement. Their upward chin-jerk and slight narrowing of eyes tells me they’re listening hard to – something. I never fail to rise to the bait and, both

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My 2026 New Year’s HEARING Resolutions

I’m making some New Year’s hearing resolutions. They aren’t radically different from my vows of previous years, some of which I’ve kept. Some of them. For a while. But even though my resolutions might be repetitive, the great thing about New Year’s is that it is a NEW YEAR. “Hope springs eternal” wrote the poet Alexander Pope. Let’s be optimistic

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When We Mispronounce Words Due to Hearing Loss

I’m shocked. Yesterday, I discovered a word I’ve been mispronouncing for my entire life. “Apossle” is the correct way to say what I’ve always expressed as “aposTle”. The ‘t’ is in the spelling, not the telling. But when hearing people heard me make that lovely tick of a t-sound, why did no one tell me? In fairness, my crowd isn’t

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One Foot in the Hearing World, One Foot in the Deaf World?

Have you ever felt as if you are caught between two worlds – the hearing one and a deaf or hearing loss one? Lately, I’ve noticed more social media posts venting frustrations about not fitting in to either world or being misunderstood by both. As a person with lifelong and profound hearing loss, I have experienced some of this