Better Hearing Consumer

Ireland, at last! A lifelong dream becoming real. But how well would I, with profound hearing loss, understand the rapid-fire and varying accents of the country? Quite well, thank you – with my hearing aid, cochlear implant, Bluetooth, smartphone technology, superb speechreading and steely self-advocacy skills. And when all else fails, a Hearing Husband. Speechreading is a way of life

  I’ll be honest – I have a love/hate relationship with ‘the hand’. A hand is the body part at the end of a human arm used for grasping, touching, and feeling. I’m good with all that. I can pick things up with my hand. I can touch your face or punch you in the arm. And, a new skill

  What do our hearing aids tell other people about us? It should be just one thing – the devices help us hear. Not that we’re broken, or lesser than – in fact, just the opposite. Using hearing aids should indicate that we have identified a problem and have taken steps to address it. The adjective ‘broken’ means damaged or

Is this you? On the surface, you appear to have this hearing loss thing nailed. You wear the technology, you self-identify without shame, and you can, in 30 seconds flat, rearrange a room and group of people to your hearing and speechreading advantage! Yet, day after day, aspects of hearing loss make you mad. If so, you’re not alone. For

I’m feeling a touch grumpy. I get this way when I see people telling other people how they should self-identify with hearing loss or deafness. And I get grumpier when they start shaming. “You can’t call yourself THAT! Because you’re NOT that! I am THAT! You’re THIS, because I say so (based on my own limited knowledge of the full

Yesterday, my tinnitus was bad. Loud and constant. It roared and rolled, swooped and yelled, filling every corner of my cranium, wanting to escape to the outside world. I wish it could, so that people could better understand what I, and millions like me, go through. Tinnitus isn’t painful, in the way that stubbing a toe hurts like heck or

  I’ve got my annual June blues – the feelings that always follow my time at the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) convention. As much as I love my Hearing Husband and my wonderful Hearing Friends, after attending the conference I miss the connectedness of being with people – lots of people – who get each other. We understand

  Do you want to be a speaker on hearing loss? Yay! Whether you dream of being on a national stage or connecting with people in your community, there are people who need to hear from you. But if you’re new to public speaking, especially about hearing loss,  I suggest you “start small”. At the start of my 30-year (so

  If you have hearing loss, have you thought about giving a talk or presentation in your community? Even if the thought of public speaking makes you nervous, or if you think you might not be good at it, you may still have an itch or even a burning desire to talk to other people about hearing loss. If so,

  What do a bad haircut and poor communication with hearing loss have in common? In a recent FaceBook reel, Mo Barrett, a humorist, corporate strategist, and author, spoke about the terrible haircut she had just endured. I thought it looked fine, although I would not have chosen that particular highly spiked, crispy-gelled look. Neither did she, apparently. The cut