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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I Hear What I See: The Mask-Hearing Loss Dilemma

I met and became friends with Anne Sjökvist on a 2018 trip to Scandinavia, where I was giving presentations. Anne is a passionate advocate and works as the Communication Director of the Swedish association for hard of hearing people, Hörselskadades förening i Stockholm. Here is her story of how a simple walk in the woods put into play the challenges

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Yes, I’m Young – Yes, I Have Hearing Loss

My guest writer this week is Karina Cotran. Karina lives in Toronto and works in communications at Loblaws. She is the author of Hearing Differently: Growing Up With a Cochlear Implant and blogs on Hearing Differently. “You have hearing loss? But…you’re not…like…old.” This is a common response that I, a 25 year old, usually get when I tell other

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10 Fab Things My Cochlear Implant Tells Me

I’ve had a cochlear implant (CI) for three years and I don’t regret my decision. How could I, when the cochlea it was replacing was only contributing to 2% speech recognition in the right ear? And I’m sure I only got that score because I guessed correctly. (When you’ve been taking hearing tests for as many years as I have,

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Could You Use a Hearing Loss Friend?

If you had only 5 minutes to make a difference in the life of a stranger, how would you use it? I asked this question in an article a few years ago and in this insane time of masks and distancing, I’m posing the question again. It’s a chance meeting – perhaps standing in line, six feet apart, to get

Featured image for “Reading the Mask: Speechreading Basics”

Reading the Mask: Speechreading Basics

I’m as tired of this pandemic as the next person. But if anything good comes out of this, it could be the world’s OMG moment about the difficulty in communicating with masks. This speechreading nightmare is not limited to people with confirmed hearing loss; mask-reading is proving to be a challenge for good-of-hearing people as well. Even the Hearing Husband

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Finding the Hearing Tech Stuff You Need

People with hearing loss today understand that we thrive at the mercy of technology. We are battery-operated people. We need electricity to charge our devices. Technology rules! I’m no tech wiz but I’m OK with the basics – the microwave, for example, although last night I did manage to crack the glass plate, and I know what buttons to push

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I Want The Silence That Other People Hear

Tinnitus can be a cruel and constant companion. Some people who have tinnitus (very few, I suspect) have been able to consider their head-sounds as music. If what I hear every second of every day is music, then I want to put another quarter in my head’s jukebox and play something else. And the music I’d pick is silence. When looking

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The Outrageous Realities of Hearing Loss

A few years ago, I wrote The Shocking Truths About Hearing Loss. I decided to revisit it and to see if these ‘truths’ still have the power to shock – even me, a lifelong bearer of hearing loss. They do. But they also bring gifts. Hearing loss is one of those ‘forever things’. It reveals itself to you every day,

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Did You Love Your First Hearing Aids?

“I can hear better than when I could hear!” My friend Alex messaged me yesterday with the news; he had finally succumbed to the reality of his hearing loss and got hearing aids. I understood what he meant – he was amazed at how clearly he could hear. I’m not sure what degree of hearing loss Alex has or what he

Featured image for “You Know What They Say About Hearing Loss: Wisdom from the Weary-Eared”

You Know What They Say About Hearing Loss: Wisdom from the Weary-Eared

Until humans can grow another set of lips at the back of their heads, you need to face me when you talk to me. I’m always one dead battery away from hysterics. No number of fresh batteries will make a hearing aid work, if its wax guard is filled to overflowing, We can lipread only when your lips actually move