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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Is Our Hearing Loss Skin Too Thin?

A few months ago, my guest blogger Lauren Sherwood wrote a poignant and popular piece on the “two most painful words to a hard of hearing person”. If you have hearing loss, you know what the two words are: Never mind! The article beautifully expressed the universal stab in the stomach that people with hearing loss (PWHL) feel every

Speechreading Tips from a Lipreading Mom

Shanna Groves, a fellow speechreading instructor, is my guest writer this week. By Shanna Groves My eyes were often my ears as a child growing up with an undiagnosed hearing loss. In college, I majored in Communication and took several classes that emphasized Voice and Diction. This exposed me to the importance of enunciation and clear speech. Through the years,

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Five Minutes to Change a Life

If you had only 5 minutes to make a difference in the life of a stranger, how would you use it? If, in an unexpected moment, a person whose daily world is not connected to yours, has opened themselves up and is ready to embrace your words, because, somehow, they know what you’re offering is something they need—what would you

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The Future – Better – Hearing Professional

Based in Denmark, the Ida Institute is a think-and-action tank for hearing care professionals. Although funded by a grant from Oticon, the institute is an independent non-profit that aims to make client-centered care the standard of hearing health. Ida’s mission is to ‘foster a better understanding of the human dynamics associated with hearing loss”. Among its many projects, Ida has

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A HoH Goes to the Spa

When talking about hearing loss and its impact on our lives, we usually discuss the meaningful issues such as communication access at work, how it affects our family interaction, accepting it as a reality in our lives. Important, life-changing stuff. But accessible mani-pedis? There’s not much in the respectable hearing loss literature about how communication issues affect the more

Meet “Flag”, Our Accessible RV

Adventure time for the Hearing Husband and me! In an unprecedented move that has shocked our family and friends, we sold our house and are taking some time to figure out where we want to settle next. In the meantime, we have downsized our living quarters to a beautiful 5th wheel named “Flag”. I decided it needed a name—not only

Best of the Better Hearing Consumer: How to Serve Diners with Hearing Loss

Enjoy this past, popular post, while I’m on vacation. See you next week! “Hi, I’m Chelsea. Welcome to the Cacophony Café. I’d like to tell you about our specials tonight.” Our group of six is seated at a round table. This is a good thing, because it’s easy to see everyone. The restaurant is dark-ish and the noise is

Best of The Better Hearing Consumer: Nitty-Gritty Tips from a Hearing Aid User

….for a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy a couple of reader favorites from the past few months. See you soon, Gael. I don’t pretend to be a hearing care professional. But for anyone looking for non-biased, trial-and-error insider advice about hearing aids, I reckon that experience is worth at least a year or two of

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What’s That Sound?

“What’s that sound?” I ask the Hearing Husband. “A dog barking down the street”, he replies. “What’s that?” “The fridge coming on.” “What’s that?” “A car alarm going off.” “What’s that?” “The cats play-wrestling.” “What’s that?” “The oven timer going off. For a long time.” “Oh shit!” Hearing people don’t always know what we don’t hear, or when we don’t hear it.

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A HoH on the Yoga Mat

The Hearing Husband and I sat on individual floor mats, waiting for the instructor to arrive for our first-ever yoga class. It was an introductory session offered by our fitness center and we thought why not? I was about to learn why not. Entering the room, the instructor lowered the lights, and as he walked to his mat in