Hearing Disabilities & Advocacy

[Lon]

I have always been Proactive particularly when it comes to my Health & Finances. Because of this I have recently become an active ADVOCATE for those with a Hearing Disability, and yes, it is a Disability.

There is so much that Audiologists could tell us that would help all of us with this disability, but they don't Their real income comes from selling hearing aids, not testing or giving advice I don't know of anyone that is continually happy about their first set of hearing aids. The average person with new hearing aids plugs them in their ears and thinks to them self " Oh Boy much better", and other family members are happy that now they can be heard better. It's just a bit of time however that the wearer is back to the audiologist complaining about shrieks, beeps, etc.

No one tells the new wearer about ALD's Assistive Listening Devices that are designed to work with hearing aids, or about Apps that can be downloaded to their IPhone that can stream a phone call directly to the hearing aid or hear television. No one ever told me that Movie Theaters in most cities are required under Federal Law to have ALD's available for Hearing Impaired folks.

These can be anything from Head Phones to Closed Captioning glasses. Here is a guarantee I can make to you. If you presently have hearing aids they will not be your last ones unless you pass away shortly. If you start doing some digging and research on your own you will feel a little better about your disability. It's not just the people that park their cars in Handicapped Parking spots that have a problem.

I can boogie out of my car and into the Market and then barely understand anything that the clerk says. I could write forever on this subject but must now go change batteries in my hearing aids. BTW I am 81 and on my fourth set of hearing aids until perhaps having a Cochlear Implant,

 

[fureverywhere]

I can relate because I'm up to lip reading a lot, closed captioning gotta love it. But even more important is you found your cause...that's a really good feeling there Something you feel incredibly strong about from personal experience and the knowledge you've gained from that experience. There's all kind of advocacy options for hearing loss and education.

See I get that boost from advocating for bully breed dogs, sadly a misunderstood breed. But after I adopted Sophie I learned everything I could from the history of "sporting dogs" right up to putting Vick in a meat dress. By the time I got Callie with his much more serious face I was ready for him 100%.

Just like hearing loss or anything you feel strongly about...if you can educate even one person at a time it feels so very good. Two of our shining moments. Taking Callie to a Halloween party. By the end of the day he was the hit of the playground and I know he changed some peoples minds about scary looking mutts.

The other was a display case at the library. You can sign up to use it for the month. My girl put her doll collection on top. The bottom was pictures, books, curios, quizzes, information pages, history, statues...celebrating the all American pup. I was really proud of that and if it even opened a few minds that's a beautiful thing.

 

[Ruthanne]

I got my hearing checked once and had some hearing loss and that was many years ago. I noticed I am turning the tv up louder these days and I don't want to annoy my neighbors. Maybe I should get another hearing test.

Thanks for all the information.

 

[Buckeye]

I had to dig a bit to find this thread, but I really didn't want to start a new one about hearing loss. I'm 70 and on my second set of hearing aids.

I was watching a movie I've seen many times on DVD a couple of days ago and while doing so I realized I couldn't really "hear" about, oh, half the conversations, even though I had my hearing aids in. Turning up the volume really didn't help.

The aids work great for the phone, since they will sync with my iPhone and the sounds go directly to the aids, not the phone speakers. But in casual conversations, they leave a lot to be desired.

So please forgive Lon and I if we ask you to repeat what you said.

 

[Lon]

I had to dig a bit to find this thread, but I really didn't want to start a new one about hearing loss. I'm 70 and on my second set of hearing aids.

I was watching a movie I've seen many times on DVD a couple of days ago and while doing so I realized I couldn't really "hear" about, oh, half the conversations, even though I had my hearing aids in. Turning up the volume really didn't help.

The aids work great for the phone, since they will sync with my iPhone and the sounds go directly to the aids, not the phone speakers. But in casual conversations, they leave a lot to be desired.

So please forgive Lon and I if we ask you to repeat what you said.

Hearing loss is not always about volume which is easy to correct. Casual conversation problems involve being able to hear the different frequencies of speech and this is the most difficult problems for hearing aids to correct. I have both low and high frequency hearing problems.

 

[Buckeye]

Hearing loss is not always about volume which is easy to correct. Casual conversation problems involve being able to hear the different frequencies of speech and this is the most difficult problems for hearing aids to correct. I have both low and high frequency hearing problems.

True dat! As a part of the testing, looked at different speech sounds as well as the usual beeps of varying frequencies. As is quite common, I do okay with the "hard sounds' in speech but have a really difficult time with the "soft sounds", and have a harder time with female voice than male voices because the latter are deeper.