Better Hearing Consumer

Oct. 30, 2012

Hearing the Score – Accessible Concerts for HoHs

Gael Hannan
The house lights finally dimmed and the stage lights came up. The audience stopped talking and fidgeting, and our eyes burned holes on the stage, willing Alfie Boe to come out and start singing. (If you haven’t heard of him, I’m happy to wait while you take a moment to look him up.) I don’t normally ‘do’ concerts; my ears
Featured image for “I Tawt I Heard a Puddy-Tat!”
Oct. 23, 2012

I Tawt I Heard a Puddy-Tat!

Gael Hannan
If I lived alone, my house could be filled to the attic rafters with varmints and I might not know it. My house issn’t dirty, but I simply wouldn’t hear an animal going about its business. The critter would put the word out to his friends and soon it would be a wildlife open house. A zoo of raccoons, mice, birds and
Featured image for “Captioning – Taking the Words Right Out of My Mouth”
Oct. 16, 2012

Captioning – Taking the Words Right Out of My Mouth

Gael Hannan
This is a gushy, mushy love blog about captioning. Speech is a many-splendored and multi-faceted thing for the person with hearing loss who communicates through the spoken word. To understand speech, we must see it as well as hear it, observing speech on the speaker’s face or reading it in its written form. Captioning, or CART, is the exquisite real-time, verbatim
Featured image for “A HoH On The Road: Hearing Loss Travel Tips”
Oct. 09, 2012

A HoH On The Road: Hearing Loss Travel Tips

Gael Hannan
Does your hearing loss prevent you from traveling, worrying about potential problems on the trip?   Get over it – communication problems can happen anywhere – at home OR away.  Mind you, some situations are more challenging than others.  The following is my personal ultimate in bad ‘traveling-with-hearing-loss’ experiences, when I was 20 and living in northern Australia. In the dark hours
Oct. 01, 2012

Te Ara Ora: A Journey of Hearing Loss-to-Wellness

Gael Hannan
Gael’s Note:  My guest blogger this week is my friend Wanda Gower-James from Gisborne, New Zealand. I met Wanda in 2007 when I was speaking to the New Zealand Hearing Association in Christchurch. A year later she received a cochlear implant, and she shares this beautiful before and after story of her journey.  Te Ara Ora is Maori for ‘the
Sep. 25, 2012

Getting Good Talk: A HoH’s Right

Gael Hannan
When I first waded into the Sea of Hearing Loss Communication, I didn’t know that its healing waters would soon change how I lived my life. Attending my initial meeting of people with hearing loss, I was astounded – truly flabbergasted – at the different strategies that people were using.  As they mingled over coffee and snacks, people were brazenly modeling
Featured image for “A Dark Night At The Movies”
Sep. 18, 2012

A Dark Night At The Movies

Gael Hannan
On Saturday night, with nothing else to do, the Hearing Husband and I thought we would go on a date night, maybe catch a movie and dinner. HH:   What’s showing? Me:   (reading)…hmm, two movies with superheroes saving the world, Finding Nemo in 3D, and a couple of teen romance flicks. Let’s do Nemo, he’s adorable. HH:   Just a minute – which
Sep. 11, 2012

Getting Hired: A HoH’s Perspective

Gael Hannan
When I’m nervous, my hearing goes south, right through the floor. When crossing the border, for example, I have trouble understanding customs officers even though I have absolutely nothing to hide, the odd shopping spree aside. One of the most nerve-wracking human experiences – with or without hearing loss – is the job interview.  And for the hard of hearing person, the
Featured image for “Lipreading By Campfire”
Sep. 04, 2012

Lipreading By Campfire

Gael Hannan
Some of my friends love camping – at Camp Hilton. Others can pack a knife and a match and head happily into the bush. I grew up in a hotels ‘r’ us family, but now I’m a card-carrying camper. I love it, I really do, but camping does present some unique communication challenges. When our son was five, we bought
Aug. 28, 2012

I’m A Hard-of-Hearing-Working-Being

Gael Hannan
I have done some dumb things in my life, but one of the most absolutely ridiculous, un-self-aware things that I have EVER done, was to take a job as front desk receptionist for a professional association of chartered accountants. I mean, with my severe hearing loss, how did I honestly expect to successfully work a switchboard?! My only excuse was