Better Hearing Consumer

I write about hearing loss, it’s what I do. Since 2011, I’ve written weekly articles on hearing loss for this site, and a blog from that year is one of my personal favorites: Speak Up Doc, I’m Hard of Hearing. In the article, I moaned and whined about the challenges that people with hearing loss experience at the doctor’s office,

If you have hearing loss, do you have someone in your circle of friends who also has hearing challenges? What I’m asking is, do you have a HoH for a friend? (For those new to my writing, relax. “HoH” is an acronym for Hard Of Hearing, another term for a Person With Hearing Loss and….isn’t it just easier to shorten

Because you’re reading this article – or at least its first line, so far – I assume it’s because you have hearing loss. And if you’ve gone on to this second line, perhaps you already know that the impact can be profound, even if your hearing loss is mild. You also probably know that by reading other people’s experiences with

Some days, people with hearing loss get tired. Tired of doing everything we should in order to communicate as best as we can. We’re tired because it takes all our patience, energy, technology and know-how to navigate this world of communication challenges. So some days, when we’re just not up for another round of hearing loss show-and-tell, we deliberately ignore

Optimists see the silver lining in the dark clouds.  Creative people  people make lemonade out of lemons.  Determined people make that lemonade – then sell it and share it. Meet my friend Laura Mather.  by Laura Mather Noisy workplace Sudden onset hearing loss Family genetics predisposed to more hearing loss Cochlear implant Near-total bilateral deafness The above is the bare bones

I’m a huge fan of speechreading. I have to be – because if I couldn’t speechread, the hearing I do have would fall below the floorboards. (That’s why I’m trying so hard, in the above picture, to speechread my friend Ray Wathen and his full-blown Texas drawl.) Actually, my hearing would be the same as always – not good –

Uh-oh. The holiday season is coming. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, Milad un Nabi, Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, and a few others.   At this point in the calendar, most people are, like, yay-hooray! But others, the ones who have hearing loss, may have a little dread and nervousness mixed in with the excitement. It’s not that we don’t love the decorations,

Hey girlfriend! If there’s one thing I’d like you to do for me It’s to move your lips more, so that I can see What you’re trying to say.   We’ve been friends forever and I can tell what you’re thinking, It’s the way your mouth says stuff that confuses me, Because they don’t move. Not much. Except when you

The Ida Institute is an organization for hearing healthcare professionals, which is something I’m not. I sit in the other chair in the clinic. I’m the one they put in the sound booth for my annual torture, uh, hearing evaluation. I’m the one who needs and uses the services of healthcare professionals. So why am I such a big fan

I’ve got a secret and if you have any degree of hearing loss, you’re keeping a secret too.  We don’t understand what people are saying, even though we pretend to. Yes, that’s the secret. We fake comprehension. We try to pass as people who understand you as you speak, looking like we’re soaking up every word. We don’t do this