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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Thank You to My Hearing Loss Champions

It’s the end of the year. And this year, many of us are hunkering down inside, nursing a cold or the flu (like the Hearing Husband), trying to find something good on TV that we haven’t yet streamed, and maybe even a backward glance over the past year. It’s been a year of amazing additions to my Hearing Loss Champion

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Now Hear This, Santa!

Dear Santa, Hi, it’s me again. You should remember me because you probably don’t get too many letters from Canadian HoH (hard of hearing) kids who transform into Canadian sixty-somethings who are deaf without their hearing devices. Ring a reindeer bell? Firstly, thank you very much taking my suggestion to trim your moustache a titch – the elves with hearing

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Cheat Sheet for Better Holiday Hearing

It’s that time of year again—the season of being pummeled with advice on how to survive the holidays. All sorts of issues pop and bloom with the festivities: anxiety and stress, weight problems or financial worries. For me and my people, we have holiday hearing issues that exclude us from what’s going on. This time of year is particularly tough

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The Bad Communication Hangover

If you’ve ever drunk or eaten too much or participated in an event that went from fun to unpleasant, how you feel the next day is often not good. “How did I let that happen to me?” Hangovers are the lingering effects of any negative situation. For people with hearing loss, this can be a Bad Group Communication Event

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Online Dating Questions for People with Hearing Loss

An alternate title for this article might be: If I Were Dating Again (Which I’m Not), What Questions Should a Deaf Dater Ask? In the many years I’ve been hitched to the Hearing Husband, the dating scene has changed dramatically. The term ‘online’ existed only to describe what to do with your laundry: hang them “on(the clothes)line”, although we did

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Got Hearing Loss? Get a Cat!

You’ve seen the videos. A dog brings slippers to his human, or becomes delirious with joy and jumps into his owner’s arms after a separation, even if it’s only been for a day. My cat sits on my slippers and is grumpy when I finally manage to pull them out from under her. When I walk through the door, Nicky

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A Bluffer’s Guide to Beauty Services

Today I had a long overdue manicure and pedicure. I escaped with my fingers and toes intact, but the service would have gone more smoothly if I’d followed my own rules for hearing loss self-advocacy For most people, having a manicure, haircut, barber’s shave, dye job, eyelash lift, massage or any other personal beauty service is a pleasure. People with

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What’s Easy About Hearing Loss?

Living with hearing loss is a challenge, but there are a few things about it that are easy. It’s EASY to convince ourselves that we’re doing ‘fine’ with our hearing loss: We’re catching most of what’s said, The important stuff anyway. We don’t need a hearing aid or cochlear implant – Those are for other people with real problems. It’s EASY

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Lost in Battle: Hearing

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. This is the first verse of the searing and hauntingly beautiful poem by Canadian doctor/soldier, Lt-Colonel John McCrae. He wrote it in 1915, reportedly after a friend in

Featured image for “The Hearing Husband’s Top Communication Tips”

The Hearing Husband’s Top Communication Tips

I have hearing loss. My husband does not. A more exact description of my hearing ability is that I am deaf without my devices. With my hearing aid and cochlear implant sound processor, I hear reasonably well, but often struggle to locate the sound or even what it is. The Hearing Husband can hear an animal rustling in the bushes