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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Why I Love the Ida Institute

The Ida Institute is an organization for hearing healthcare professionals, which is something I’m not. I sit in the other chair in the clinic. I’m the one they put in the sound booth for my annual torture, uh, hearing evaluation. I’m the one who needs and uses the services of healthcare professionals. So why am I such a big fan

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People with Hearing Loss Have a Secret

I’ve got a secret and if you have any degree of hearing loss, you’re keeping a secret too. We don’t understand what people are saying, even though we pretend to. Yes, that’s the secret. We fake comprehension. We try to pass as people who understand you as you speak, looking like we’re soaking up every word. We don’t do this

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Hearing Devices: When to Take ‘Em Off or Leave ‘Em On

Some people tear off their hearing devices as soon as they walk through their front door. All day they’ve suffered the onslaught of noise – words, sounds and simply noise-noise. Their brain is fried, and they need to not be processing anything for a while. They yank off their hearing aid or cochlear implant sound processor and settle into the

Featured image for “Why I Love Ida”

Why I Love Ida

The Ida Institute is an organization for hearing healthcare professionals, which is something I’m not. I sit in the other chair in the clinic. I’m the one they put in the sound booth for my annual torture, uh, hearing evaluation. I’m the one who needs and uses the services of healthcare professionals. So why am I such a big

Featured image for “Setting Free Your Hearing Loss Emotions”

Setting Free Your Hearing Loss Emotions

Most people, upon getting the news that they have hearing loss, don’t receive the diagnosis as if it were nothing. “Oh, I’ve got hearing loss? Alrighty then, thanks a lot for telling me.” Maybe some people take the news calmly, both inwardly and outwardly, but if we could read the thoughts of most people, we’d see something more along the

Featured image for “People with Hearing Loss Have a Secret”

People with Hearing Loss Have a Secret

I’ve got a secret and if you have any degree of hearing loss, you’re keeping a secret too. We don’t understand what people are saying, even though we pretend to. Yes, that’s the secret. We fake comprehension. We try to pass as people who understand you as you speak, looking like we’re soaking up every word. We don’t

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I Don’t Know What to Say About Tinnitus

I don’t know what to say about tinnitus because it’s an ornery beast. I don’t even like to say the word (tinnitus), because it responds to its name with even more loudness. OK, maybe I can say a few words about it. Tinnitus is annoying, frustrating, loud, keeps mixing up the sounds and moving from one side to another. It

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We Hear Better When People Speak Better

The salesperson is facing you. There is almost no background noise and you’re wearing your hearing devices. Since it’s just the two of you, this is shaping up to be an accessible conversation. Then she starts to speak and you realize that all the bad speaking habits seemed to be rolled up in this woman. She speaks softly, her lips

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What Did You Miss When You Pretended to Hear?

People with hearing loss are cheaters. Well, most of us are. And we don’t cheat all the time – just when other people are talking to us. Which is a lot of the time. But saying that we’re cheaters doesn’t mean we’re not nice people. Most of us are fabulous! We just have a little problem: ‘fessing up when we’re

Featured image for “Hearing Loss Technology: Got it? Flaunt it!”

Hearing Loss Technology: Got it? Flaunt it!

Hearing aids have yet to reach the same level of high fashion as eyeglasses. But they’ve come a long, long way and so has public attitude towards them. But until recently, personal hearing technology was still big and ugly, which helped explain the distaste that people had for using them. At least, that’s how I felt when I got my