Better Hearing Consumer

Most days I feel like I’ve got this hearing loss thing licked. After all, I’ve had it for six decades, I write about it regularly and I talk about it all the time. I share tips I’ve learned from other people and I make up my own. I OWN my hearing loss. My mission for these past few years has

On your list of favorite people, your audiologist probably won’t make the Top 10. But he or she should be #11 or something close to it.   But maybe we should be talking about a different list – perhaps the Top 10 People Who Help Make My Life Better. Studies show that around 20% of people who would benefit from

People with hearing loss are just like other people, except that we don’t hear very well or at all. If you don’t have hearing loss, it’s difficult to grasp what it’s really like.  Here a few things that might give you a better insight into our life. When we speak loudly, we’re not aware of it. But you, unfortunately, are. We

I don’t know how to say this more clearly: Telecoils in my hearing aids have made my life better. Better, happier, easier, and more connected. And I’m not the only one – there are gazillions of us. Because of this positive experience, it’s frustrating for us – the hearing loss advocates and international organizations – to hear that audiologists are advising

Is there a person with hearing loss in your family? If so, then you know all about what to do —and what not to do— for effective communication, right?   Are you a person with hearing loss in a family where everyone else is hearing? If so, you know how difficult it is for your family members to remember and

Almost anyone who has hearing loss would like to say goodbye to it. Some people, however, are so comfortable with their hearing loss that they would refuse a cure if it were offered. (So they say.) The rest of us, however, would gladly say good riddance and enjoy becoming a hearing person again, or for the first time. Unfortunately, for

If you have hearing loss, you probably already know that there are a lot of habits and routines involved in the hearing loss life. And, if you’re honest, you’ll also admit that while many of these are good things to do, some habits are not, and some routines could use improvement. But first, what’s the difference between a habit and

At the recent conference of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association (CHHA) in Montreal, I was one of several people asked to give a sort of TED Talk, which we creatively called CHHA Talks. As I sat down to prepare my speech, the session description made me almost spew my coffee over my laptop.  “Professional speakers devoted to spreading revolutionary

Throughout my lifetime, like most people, I’ve received care from a variety of medical professionals – doctors, nurses, dentists who would refer to me as their patient and I wouldn’t argue with that. But I have a different approach to other service providers such as my optometrist and my audiologist. In a recent and beautifully written article for HearingHealthMatters.org, audiologist

Isn’t it amazing what people who don’t have hearing loss can do? My friend Myrtle says that hearing people always do what they do best – they hear.   They can understand the words in songs with so much background instrumentals that we, people with hearing loss, can’t even tell that someone is singing. When a bird calls out from