We’re taking a break this week at HearingHealthMatters.org – to refresh the creative spirit and enjoy the gifts of the holiday season. For those of you who missed it, this blog was one of the most-read of the past year, originally published January 19, 2016. Its popularity is not surprising, because the article is about how we describe ourselves, which is an ongoing topic of interest to people who are deaf and hard of hearing.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you who care about living life well with hearing loss.
People with Hearing Loss: How Do We Explain Ourselves?
People with hearing loss are unique. We occupy an awkward place in this world that spins on the sounds of people, nature, and machines that most other people can hear and understand. And it’s not always easy to explain what it’s like to be in that place.
We are set apart, defined—not by choice, not by faith, gender, color, political views or sexual persuasion—but by our inability to hear perfectly, or very well, or even at all. We don’t communicate in the same way as the hearing people.
Some of us embrace Deaf Culture. For some, our mild hearing loss is an irritant and frustration to be endured. It cannot yet cured, but communication has been made easier with technology and other strategies, just as mild chronic pain can be helped with pain relievers and physical therapy. But whether mild, moderate or profound, hearing loss affects almost every area of our lives and we struggle to describe its impact—not just to educate others, but to help ourselves make sense of it.
Sometimes we need a different way describe it.
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