Better Hearing Consumer

Having escaped from the waiting room zoo, I am  sitting in an examining room waiting to see my new ENT specialist. And hallelujah, it’s a real room, with a door. My previous ENT believed in the open office concept, a nightmare for patients with hearing loss. Suddenly, the doctor strides into the room, white coat and a medical intern flapping

Ok, people with hearing loss, think quickly now. What’s the most challenging aspect of going to the hospital, doctor, or dentist? The eye exam where you can’t see the technician’s lips, let alone him? The dentist who wears a mask, but you can’t say ‘pardon’ with a mouth propped open by metal bars? The doctor in a rush who doesn’t

1. When you take your hearing aids out at night, open the battery cage. Otherwise the battery will corrode, and the corrosion will seep into your brain and make you go cross-eyed. 2. I know we told you that it takes 30 days or so to get used to the new hearing aid. But for many people, it’s more like

Standing in the line-up of Tim Horton’s, Canada’s coffee-shop shrine, I heard the music leaking from the earbuds of the teenager behind me. And if I heard it with my severe hearing loss, it must have been really loud. I grumbled to myself, and not only because the noise was irritatingly tinny and nothing I could sing along with.  And I didn’t

Do you know what really bugs me about being hard of hearing?   I simply detest the term hard of hearing. What does that mean, anyway? What do those words tell you about me, or the way I communicate? I need a better term  to describe myself, but the choice is limited: hard of hearing, a person with hearing loss, hearing-impaired, deaf

  Conversing with a hard of hearing person is much easier if you, the ‘hearing’ person,  are aware of the hearing loss. If you don’t know that the person you’re talking to has a hearing problem, you might be forgiven for looking in another direction (into space for example) as you prattle on, or mumbling, or putting your hands in front

“Gael, did you know Digby has fleas?” asked my friend as he looked into the fridge for snacks. “That’s too bad,” I said. My friend turned back to me, puzzled. “What’s too bad?” “That the dog has fleas.” “Who said that? “You just did.” “I asked if you’d like a diet pepsi.” “Oh. Thanks…and glad to hear Digby has no

Last week, writing about all the good reasons to wear hearing aids and my affection for Billy-Bob, my current set of aids, I thought back to the day when I got The First One. It was rush hour on St. Clair Avenue, one of Toronto’s noisiest streets, asI left the office of Miss Rowena Fothergill, my hearing aid dispenser, to walk

I love my hearing aids, to the moon and back.  They even have names, Billy and Bob. But it hasn’t always been a love affair; a succession of hearing aids have been glared at, sworn at, and ignored.  I have pondered how much they would pull in on eBay.  But now, if I have to give them up for more

Gael Hannan has invited me to talk about captioning – which is my passion and my pleasure. I may not make you laugh, but  I hope to illustrate how extremely important captioning inclusion is for millions of people. Communication is crucial to relationships; it’s darn hard to have meaningful relations at home, at work, and in society without effective communications.  All