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Educating others about hearing loss and deafness
Hearing Loss | Last Active: Mar 16, 2020 | Replies (17)Comment receiving replies
Mary, you and I have a lot in common. Mostly, in these situations I just wing it although frustrated because I cannot participate fluidly in the conversation w/o knowing what it's about. Makes me feel that people don't know how smart I am. (smile) They are my friends and comrades, so I keep going back. Glad I can shake it off and find some humor in it. Assistive technology (Mini Mic 2+) helps a lot, but it's still hard to follow conversation that is switching topics every 20 seconds. That's our reality in groups. ASL isn't a solution unless one decides to associate with others who use it. And, for speech readers it can be very distracting. I've been in many settings where signers are carrying on a conversation while a speaker is presenting. It's distracting and annoying. ASL is a beautiful means of communication, but is rarely a solution for hard of hearing people. Actually, I believe that talking about these things, as we do on this site, is an excellent stress buster.
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Hi,
My Audi has let me try a few assisted devices with my Phonak aids and none of them really helped as they picked up more environmental noise than anything. I have a pocket talker which was helpful years ago but but not so much now. I could have trialed the Roger products but the expense is ridiculous. May revisit that. I really rely on my phone app but it has its limits too. I find it useful and not so distracting .....you get really good at knowing when to look at the phone....I kind of hold it up a little so it’s a lot like captions which we are all experts at . Speed readers I call us lol. Thank goodness for Innocaption and the Captel phone. I retube my own aids and make sure they are in pristine condition and visit my ENT every several months for a cleaning’ and a dustin’ and try to avoid anything ototoxic. Right now I have to take eye drops 4 times a day for 6 weeks for an eye inflammation . I know the prednisone and NASID drops are affecting the quality of my hearing but it’s something that is temporarily necessary. Oh well...off to the noisey gym in a bit....I go into directional mode on the aids which blocks most of the noise around me...fantastic setting....that and the mute mode😏
FL Mary