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.

Featured image for “Grumpy About Hearing Loss? Get Over It”

Grumpy About Hearing Loss? Get Over It

Does any of this sound familiar? This hearing loss thing’s the pits. I can’t enjoy a decent meal in a restaurant because it’s too noisy. Hearing technology took a chunk out of my money, so you’d think that those guys would make ‘em work better. Family dinners are a noise-fest, everybody trying to out-loud the next guy – while I’m

Featured image for “The Contrarian: Got (Milk) Tests?”

The Contrarian: Got (Milk) Tests?

In this month’s edition of The Contrarian, Michael Metz poses some questions about testing procedures that all audiologists might want to ask themselves. For a couple of decades during the early years of modern audiology (after the fifties), it seemed like there was a new test introduced at least a couple of times per year. These

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The Outdoor Cure for Hearing Loss

How’s this for a salad bar of communication strategies? Hearing aids. Cochlear implants. Speechreading skills. Assistive listening devices. Telecoils and looping. Bluetooth. Captioning on TV, at the movies, on our smartphones. Assertiveness in having our needs met. Manipulating our listening environment with lighting, good sight lines, and low-or-no background noise. People with hearing loss pick and choose the ones they

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Full to Empty to Full

Cathy Beaton, my guest writer this week, offers a searing and honest look into the hearing loss technology that can both help us—and fail us. By Cathy Beaton I had been wistfully looking forward to some much-needed time off work. And then ‘it’ began. My cochlear implant (CI) started to die, slowly. Shorter battery life and decreasing clarity. It

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Captions Will Capture the Votes

Lauren Storck writes about the crucial need for captioning – on social media as well as at live campaign events – to help voters with hearing loss understand their candidates’ election platforms. By Lauren Storck We the people! If you are part of a country that votes, you want to protect not only your right to vote, but your understanding of the issues;

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Of Cats & Closed Captioning

It was a road trip gone wrong. No, the car didn’t break down in the middle of nowhere and nobody got hurt. It was much much worse – there was a closed captioning crisis in our hotels! The Hearing Husband and I were driving from British Columbia to meet family in Lake Tahoe. It was a scenic three-day, two-night and

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Oh, The Places We Will Go – Harbinger of Deregulation?

In this week’s post, Angela Loavenbruck continues with her look at the “Audiology Elephant” of the PCAST recommendations. by Angela Loavenbruck In my last two columns, I examined the imaginary elephants that PCAST participants and audiologists have created. I was pretty crabby in both of those discussions. I hoped to make some positive suggestions about how audiologists

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10 Ways to Say “I Love You” to a Person with Hearing Loss

When it comes to Valentine’s Day, most people say they ignore it. So does my Hearing Husband – although to be fair, I think it just takes him by surprise every year on February 13th. To be even fairer, both of us are content with simply wishing each other a happy VD and moving on with our day. But whether or not you

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The Contrarion: Locked Into What?

Michael Metz is back with The Contrarian, a monthly column that invites considered opinion and informed debate within the Audiology profession. Locked into What? online pharmacy topamax no prescription pharmacy Consider this situation: a physician prescribes specific medication for a patient’s illness. The medication is unlabeled and dispensed unmarked to the patient. When the

Featured image for “When I Get a Cochlear Implant, I Shall Wear Feathers”

When I Get a Cochlear Implant, I Shall Wear Feathers

When I get a cochlear implant, I shall wear feathers, I think. I haven’t made up my mind exactly, because it’s still a long way off, Within a year. I hope. I shall choose equipment to be white like my hair. Is that boring? Why not spice it up, flaunt it, and glorify it? With feathers from eagles, doves or heck,