@mari There are a lot of ways to advocate. To advocate for ourselves, request Hearing Assistive Technology (HAT) when you go to a venue. If the venue has something, use it and thank them for it. If they do not have HAT, offer suggestions on what is available and where they can "hear" it in action. Another thing would be to share your experiences. For a person that is new to hearing loss, there is so much to learn. To help on a larger scale, attend your state legislators coffees or town halls, if they have them. Even if they don't do outreach, contact them with the issues that affect you, as a person with hearing loss. If you get more personal with them, they may even contact you when a bill comes up that relates to hearing loss. The more you get involved with the players in the hearing loss world, the easier it is to try to stay on top of what's happening. I suggest you join Hearing Loss Association of America (www.hearingloss.org). That organization approaches Congress and are only as strong as the number of its members. They are more effective if they can say they represent ALL the 48 million in this country with hearing loss but they can only say they represent the numbers that are their members.
I'm sure there are other ways to advocate so others may chime in with some good ideas.
Tony in Michigan