Better Hearing Consumer

The hearing care professionals joke about us, the people with hearing loss, among themselves. (They do, I know they do!) We’re the people who delay doing anything about our hearing loss for years, yet once we’re used to our hearing aids and cochlear implants, we can’t do without them for a moment. Mysteriously dead batteries cause panic. Hearing aids that

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty damn critical about myself. I think everyone is, to a certain extent, but I’ve noticed a pattern where folks with disabilities are more self-critical than folks without any disabilities. It’s almost like we put ourselves up to a higher standard because we don’t meet society’s typical standards. Society doesn’t explicitly say we

Note: “HoH” is a term that some people with hearing loss use occasionally to describe themselves – usually to other HoHs. It’s an acronym for ‘hard of hearing’, a term that ‘hearing people’ (how HoHs describe people without hearing loss) tend to understand. Sort of, sometimes. (Are you still with me?) I’ve had hearing loss my entire life. I became

I once was lost, but now I’m found…. These words of renewal from the old hymn can also describe people who have found a new way to live with their hearing loss, free from the tyranny of stigma and frustration, fear and isolation. And when that happens, they often want to share what they’ve learned by paying it forward. Obviously,

It’s not a university level course, or even a highly specialized skill. It simply shouldn’t be that difficult for ‘hearing’ people to communicate well with people like me, the ones who have hearing loss. After all, WE have the hard job – trying to hear and understand what people are saying, especially those with less than stellar communication skills –

When I look back to my life before I met other people with hearing loss, I can see how they changed my world in ways I never expected. The following tries to express my gratitude for their impact on my hearing journey. _____________ The new baby smiled and thrived, and her parents said, she’s good, she’s beautiful, she’s perfect. But

This is Tinnitus Awareness Week…and let me tell you, those of us who have it are very aware of it! It’s always there in some form. Soft or screaming, single note or techno-pop, screeching high or thumping low. Or all at once. It follows you everywhere, this tinnitus, like a painful itch you can’t scratch, monopolizing your focus, diverting it

All people with hearing loss have experienced the two most painful words in the hearing loss dictionary—never mind. The hurt at hearing them never gets old, even though we may learn how to respond to them better. But how about that six-word question that plagues every hearing aid or cochlear implant user: “Have you got your thing  in?” This can set off

Everyone does it. Everyone, not just the people with hearing loss, asks for things to be repeated and for many reasons. We are momently distracted from the speaker’s words. What’s being said doesn’t quite make sense. The speaker is talking and eating at the same time. People are talking over each other. The words and facial expressions don’t match, such

I don’t like noise. It’s not so much the noise itself, but what it does to me – and what I have to do to counteract its toxic effects. For many people, noise exposure can cause a stress reaction. Others have noise sensitivity. For the person with hearing loss (aka ME), the noise of public spaces, large gatherings or even