diverse identities exist within the hearing loss community
One of the really troublesome issues facing hard of hearing, late deafened, and oral deaf persons is establishing
their identity. Persons with hearing loss often feel that they are no aren't
really connected to either the hearing world or the deaf world. Their isolation
from the hearing world is generally due to their hearing loss, and their
isolation from the deaf world is generally due to not being part of the Deaf
Culture and it's heavy reliance on sign language.
The Awakening OHL Community - a real-time study of
the efforts of members of the oral
hearing loss (OHL) community to acquire services and support appropriate to
their needs.
Coping with hearing loss is a lot more than just
getting hearing aids.
Here are some real-life stories of people with
hearing loss and how it affects their lives.
In 2006 the Gallaudet University Board of Trustees
selected Jane Fernandes to be the next president of Gallaudet. This action
sparked an outburst at the university. Here's some coverage of that event and
its aftermath.
Baby Boomers! They've impacted every aspect
of American life for the last fifty years. And now they're taking on
hearing loss!
Denial is more than the name of a river in Egypt! It's a common
response to hearing loss, and one that can be perplexing to family
members and friends. Why are people with hearing
loss so likely to be in denial, and what can you do about it?
Who's Who provides a set of
admittedly imperfect definitions of the groups of persons with hearing loss.
Examples provides current and historical
real world examples of identity confusion.
October 2000 - You've probably seen
the terms "disability", "handicap", and
"impairment" used in almost interchangeable ways. In fact,
they really have rather specific meanings. Here's
an article I wrote and some interesting reader responses.
January 2002
- Just who comprises the hearing loss community? Here's an article with
some of the demographics related to hearing loss.
May 2005 - At the 2005 Western Symposium on Deafness (WSD)
Dr. John Schroedel and Dr. Douglas Watson of the University of Arkansas
presented an excellent workshop entitled "Patterns
in the Employment and Vocational Rehabilitation of Hard of Hearing
Persons".
May 2005 - Another
interesting WSD workshop by Drs. Schroedel and Watson examined hard of
hearing college students.
December 2005 - Ever wonder what it might be
like to be a wait person with hearing loss? Here's Erin Geld's
compelling story about her experiences.
January 2006 - MarkeTrak
VII Survey - The definitive survey of people with hearing loss
January 2006
- Connie Briscoe's Hearing Loss Story
February 2006 - Deaf Geoff
April 2006 -
For the first time in history (as far as we know) a
deaf student is elected president of a university student body comprised
primarily of hearing folks!
May 2006 - Can You
Repeat the Question?
June 2006 - Bach,
falling upon deaf ears
June 2006 -
Cochlear implants changing park district's 'camp sign'
June 2006 - Non-Hispanic blacks have best hearing in
US, new study shows
July 2006 - Why People Delay Dealing
with Hearing Loss
July 2006 - Have you ever wondered what life is like for kids
raised by parents with hearing loss? Here with
one parent's reflections on the topic is Denise Portis.
August 2006 - Treat hearing loss like any other
aging problem
August 2006 - Here are some interesting quotes
about hearing loss from famous Americans.
August 2006 - Scots Reluctant to Wear Hearing Aids
September 2006 - Have you used some of these
negative hearing loss coping strategies?
October 2006 - Here's
our report on Dr. Sanjay Gulati's Keynote Speech entitled
"Re-inventing Deafness" at ALDAcon 2006.
October
2006 - To
Which World Do You Belong?
October
2006 - From ALDAcon 2006
- Dr. Lucy Miller's Poignant Story - Where Do I Fit In?
October
2006 - ALDAcon 2006
Presentation - Coaching and Late Onset Hearing Loss - A Partnership that
Works
December
2006 - Maryland School for the Deaf Considers Accepting
Hearing Students
December
2006 - The Night Before HOH Christmas - an adaptation
of the traditional poem.
January
2007 - Pros and Cons of Sign Language
January
2007 - Deafness and the Riddle of Identity
January
2007 - Deaf children without barriers
February
2007 - Documentary chronicles 200 years of deaf life
in America
February
2007 - Plans for SD deaf town scrapped
February
2007 - People Who "Get It"
March
2007 - Silence in a Hearing World
April
2007 - I Can Hear You Now
May
2007 - New Findings Uncover Disparity in Attitudes
About Hearing Loss
May 2007 - Deaf
pianist imagines sound
May 2007 - Hearing
Loss Negatively Affects Relationships
June 2007 -
Playing in a Festival Orchestra
September
2007 -
Guitar Hero: Suddenly, he couldn't hear the music for
the noise
October 2007 - Hearing-impaired comedian
encourages communication
October 2007 - Here's Denise Portis'
"Between a Rock and a Hard Place"
January 2008 -
Untreated Hearing Loss Impacting
American Youth
March 2008 - Better Hearing Institute Publishes
Legal Rights Guide for Individuals with Hearing Loss
March 2008 -
House technology helps hearing-impaired lawmaker
April 2008 - Have hearing loss? Group offers help with daily living
April 2008 - Absenteeism Higher
Among Hearing Impaired People
May 2008 - People with Hearing Loss Miss Sounds
of Friends and Family
May 2008 -
Hearing Impairment Appears Associated With Vision
Problems in Elderly
May 2008 - What Sound do People with Hearing
Loss Miss Most?
Aug 2008 - Hearing Loss May Be More Widespread
Than Thought
Aug 2008 - Deafness and the User Experience
Oct 2008 - Does Hearing Loss Affect or Change
Your Personality?
March 2009 - Ten Misconceptions about People with
Hearing Loss
March 2009 - Is There a Hard of Hearing Culture?
April 2009 - AG Bell
Denounces Demonstrations
April 2009 - Audism Free America: Outcomes of the
Historic Meeting and Rally at the AG Bell Association Headquarters
April 2009 -
Inside Actress Marlee Matlin's Silent World
June 2009 -
Does disability really need to be 'fixed'?
July 2009 - Effectiveness of
Informational Counseling on Acceptance of Hearing Loss Among Older
Adults
October 2009 -
The Secret World of Deaf Prisoners
October 2009 -
How many D/HOH people are there?
November 2009 - Deanne Bray - A Hearing Loss Hero
December 2009 - Initial MarkeTrak VIII Results Available
for Download
January 2010 - 17 Misconceptions about People with
Hearing Loss
January 2010 - Number of Americans with Hearing Loss
March 2010 - Despite what you may have
heard, there's no boom in deafness
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2006
Sergei
Kochkin, an American hearing expert, has carried out various studies of
hearing-impaired Americans and their use of hearing aids (the MarkeTrak
Surveys). In his 2005 survey (MarkeTrak VII) he found that more than 31
million Americans were hearing-impaired - corresponding to more than
10.5 per cent of the American population. More than 24 million of them
did not have a hearing aid and only about 23.5 percent of
hearing-impaired Americans actually use hearing aids. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2006
WWHT-FM
(Hot 107.9) morning producer Geoff Herbert has trouble taking calls from
listeners. Sometimes, he misunderstands what hosts Marty and Shannon are
saying to him. "Recently, Marty said something about Duke
University and I thought he said something about Jewish people,"
Herbert says. "Sometimes, it's so off-base, it's funny." Even
if he didn't call himself "DeafGeoff" on the air, there would
be little doubt that Herbert is bringing something quite exceptional to
Syracuse morning radio. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 2006
Getting deaf teens to sing Bach is: (a) Exploitative and voyeuristic. (b)
Culturally inclusive and respectful. (c) A celebration of failure and
chaos. (d) A celebration of determination and hope. (e) Art. As any good
test-taker knows, once you're pretty sure that certain answers can't be
right, you simply settle for whatever's left. Art it is.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2006
Editor: It
seems that almost a third of Scots are reluctant to wear hearing aids,
because they think it would make them seem old or disabled. I've never
seen numbers reported for the US, but I bet they're at least as high!
Here's the press release from Hear-it Press
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fear of being
labelled old or disabled makes the Scots reluctant to seek treatment for
hearing problems.
According to
a survey on hearing loss in Scotland, around 29% of Scots think hearing
aids would make them look old. More importantly, almost a third of Scots
believe hearing aids would make them look disabled and would not wear a
hearing aid even if they needed one.
The Scottish
survey highlights the stigma surrounding hearing loss and the use of
hearing aids. Although most hearing problems can easily be helped, people
are often unaware that they have a problem, or they are in denial about
it.
It is
estimated that 4 million people in the UK could benefit from a hearing
aid. Hearing aids can help a person with a hearing loss at any age and are
more effective if fitted early.
Deafness
Research UK has launched a campaign to encourage people to admit the
problem and seek early help. The campaign aims to help people recognise
the early signs of hearing loss and what they can do about it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By
Michael Gergley
October
2006
To
which world do you belong, the hearing of the deaf? When asked this
question I would have to say, "Neither. I'm between two worlds. I'm
hard of hearing." And although my primary means of communication is
oral, I don't identify with the hearing world. Alternately although I
have a severe hearing loss and use assistive listening devices such as a
hearing aid, my residual hearing leaves me feeling I don't belong in the
deaf community, either. So I'm left as the lyrics to a favorite song of
mine say to ponder, "Where do I belong?"
Ironically
enough, I have 'heard' the answer, not in some lecture or after reading
some book on hearing loss. Nor was it a one-time happening where a tiny
light bulb went on in my head, revealing in full color and sound where
indeed I DID and DO belong. It HAS and WILL continue to be a process of
self-discovery for me.
So
what does all this mean for my everyday challenges to find answers and
have my unique needs met? Perhaps the best personal experience I can
share was during a discussion on hearing loss during my graduate degree
studies working towards my Masters Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling.
Many hearing loss related issues were spoken about, but some, like being
deaf and being hard of hearing, were grouped together as if their needs
were the same. I took advantage of this opportunity to educate others
about my unique world. And though I still sometimes feel between two
worlds and I seem to always have to educate somebody else, in my world
is where I belong.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December
2006
Since
its founding in 1868, the Maryland School for the Deaf has been
cloistered from the wider world. Students walk a picturesque campus of
green lawns and old brick buildings, speak American Sign Language and
enjoy their own culture. Now the school is considering a radical step
that could end that segregation: a proposal to accept a limited number
of hearing students. The school's superintendent says it should think
about admitting hearing students to ensure that enrollment in years to
come will remain large enough to be viable. . . . But more young deaf
children are getting implants that allow them some degree of hearing
and, unlike a century ago, the majority of deaf students are going to
regular public schools. The trend worries some educators who wonder if
deaf culture and American Sign Language will dwindle away as fewer
children attend schools for the deaf and fewer learn to sign. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January
2007
But
the "not deaf enough" issue is alive and well among deaf
scholars, students, and activists. Even though Fernandes may have
exaggerated that accusation to bolster her own position, and even though
her detractors denied its relevance, the charge formed at least part of
the subtext of students' anger and is a topic of debate within the deaf
community. Now that passions have been spent and an interim president,
Robert R. Davila, appointed, it might be useful to examine what deaf
identity might be and how that identity fits in with current notions of
other identities based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and so on.
Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2007
You may have heard of plans to create near Sioux
Falls, SD, a town in which sign language was the common language. The
plans have been in the works for years and for a while things were
rolling along. Now those plans have been scrapped and the promoters are
leaving the state. Among the reasons cited for the change of plans are
" declining
enrollment at South Dakota School for the Deaf and the rapidly declining
deaf and signing population in Sioux Falls because of changes at
Communication Service for the Deaf." Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 2007
THE SUN ROSE ONE SATURDAY MORNING THE SAME AS ANY
OTHER, EXCEPT THAT I AWOKE DEAF. It came without warning, as if awaking in
a Kafka nightmare: nothing but an incessant painful scream in my left ear.
It sounded as if my ear were pressed against a powerful blown-out Marshall
electric guitar amplifier roaring at full-bore. The slightest sound was
magnified and distorted beyond hurt to an excruciating, overdriven rage. I
could not speak above a whisper. My own voice, my own footsteps, were
intolerably loud and painful. Sounds were so distorted -- as if I were
inside a trash can -- that it was difficult to comprehend speech through
my other ear. If that were not enough, the room in my living nightmare
shifted like the deck of a ship, heaving me around in a disoriented, dizzy
daze. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March 2008
Rep. Bob Smith may be the chattiest guy down at
the state Capitol. And darned proud of it. "I can't hear anything, so I
might as well just keep talking," the Republican from Watkinsville jokes.
You heard right: Smith, chairman of one of the most powerful subcommittees
in the House and gladhander of governor, security guard and everyone in
between, has a profound hearing impairment. "If I take these out," he
says, pointing to the hearing aids that nestle inside and behind both of
his ears, "I'm about 75 percent gone." He wouldn't dare risk it. It's not
just that Smith, 55, is gregarious by nature. ("He's the most important
person in the Capitol - just ask him," snickers good friend and fellow
Rep. Jeff Lewis, a Republican from White.) The five-term House veteran
also is making up for lost time. After nearly a decade of having to work
harder just to keep up, Smith last year took a big stride forward in what
he is able to hear and do, thanks to some sophisticated advances in audio
technology in the House chamber. And he has no intention of going back.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2008
Elderly patients, especially those who have had
cataracts or have glaucoma, should be tested for other comorbidities,
including hearing loss, researchers suggested here at the 2008 Annual
Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).
"The actual likelihood of having a combined impairment is at least twice
that [which is] expected," said Marilyn Schneck, PhD, Researcher, Smith-Kettlewell
Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, California, and a member of the
program committee of ARVO. "This holds true over a range of definitions of
hearing and vision impairment and ocular disease status." In a poster
presentation here on April 29, Dr. Schneck described a study of 446
patients who participated in a hearing screening test at the second
follow-up after a Smith-Kettlewell vision study. The patients' mean age
was 79.9 years (range, 67.0-107.1 years), and 43% of the patients were
male.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2008
This article is a bit difficult to categorize.
It's ostensibly about captioning on the Internet and how to make Internet
content more accessible to people with hearing loss, but there's also some
interesting information on Deaf vs deaf, and some of the cultural issues
that challenge the hearing loss world.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 2009
February 2, 1987, it's nearing dusk when my plane
lands in Palm Springs. No one in my family is there to meet me. No
friends. Just a stranger, an old man with a face that looks as if it has
traveled a thousand miles of bad road. He smiles and waves in my
direction. I'm sure he's seen countless like me before. He seems kind,
tries to be reassuring, but it still takes all of my strength to move
toward him and his aging station wagon. He is a volunteer, the
transportation of lost souls now one of his missions in life maybe a way
to direct a little good karma back in his direction. I understand, I could
use some myself. I have never, ever felt more alone or more frightened in
my life; it's as if sadness and despair have seeped deep into my bones.
He doesn't try to talk to me, and I wonder if he knows I am Deaf or just
senses that I'm too emotionally fragile to talk. Either way he's right. I
have no words right now. I am as close to broken as I've ever been. We
head out into the fading light for a fifteen-minute drive that feels
endless, the one that will take me to the Betty Ford Center, specializing
in treating alcohol and drug addiction, in nearby Rancho Mirage. My name
is Marlee Matlin, and at this moment I am twenty-one years old and at the
very beginning of an unexpectedly promising acting career. I've also
managed to pack a few other things into those years among them a serious
addiction to both pot and cocaine. Then there's my two-year relationship
with actor William Hurt, which has gone from passionate and troubled to
dangerously difficult and codependent.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 2009
But those who are culturally deaf are worried
about the future of their language and their way of life, both of which
are beloved to them. I can identify with their fears, because I was born
deaf to an all-deaf family. American Sign Language is my native language.
I graduated from the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf, where I enjoyed
a rich education. I went to Gallaudet University, the world's premier
institution of higher education with a mainly deaf student body. It was
where my parents met and where I fell in love with a deaf woman who is now
my wife. Although our three sons are hearing, ASL is their native
language, and they are members of the signing community as much as we are.
I love being deaf and would not change it for the world. Like many deaf
people, I don't consider deafness as an impairment.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2009
In the 1970s, an antiwar demonstrator found
himself at New York City's Rikers Island jail facility for a couple of
months on a disorderly conduct charge. The demonstrator, who happened to
be a friend of mine, met a handful of young men from the Bronx in his unit
who were deaf. They were having trouble communicating with anyone but
themselves. My friend knew a little sign language and, after a few
conversations, discovered they were illiterate. With the idea of helping
them improve their communication skills, he asked prison authorities for
permission to order books on sign language from the publisher. The wardens
refused, saying that they did not want anyone in that prison using a
"language" they could not understand. Things may have changed a little for
the better since then. But not by much.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2009
Over the years, I've tried to get actual stats on
this. You would think that there would be an easy way to do this that
would enable you to get an accurate number. Unfortunately, not only is
hearing loss considered the 'invisible disability', the people that have
it are also very good at not disclosing it. [snip] So, here's what I did.
I contacted the US Census Bureau. For those of you that have not visited
their website, it is very interesting to see how interactive it is. There
are literally thousands of things available. If you can't find it on
their list of 'most questions asked' in a particular subject, you can go
to their 'Ask a question' area and within 2 business days, have the data.
From a research point of view, this is very helpful. [snip] Well, for
those of you interested, I'm including the response along with the
instructions that I received from the US Census Bureau. You can literally
look at any state or county (that has at least 65,000 in population) and
see what their numbers are. For those of you wanting to find out how this
data was conceived, there is also that information with a link to it.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
November 2009
Deanne Bray has hearing loss as do the characters
she plays. She is most recently known for her starring role in the PAX-TV
series, Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye. The show was loosely based on the true
experiences of Sue Thomas, a woman with a profound hearing loss, who
worked for the FBI in 1978 doing uncover surveillance by reading lips.
Deanne played the character in the current time and her character worked
with the FBI agents on the field more than the real Sue. The real Sue
mostly watched videotapes transcribing suspects' statements by reading
lips. [snip] Deanne's new series, Heroes, is a serial saga about people
all over the world discovering that they have superpowers and trying to
deal with how this change affects their lives. Deanne will play Emma, a
woman with a hearing loss who will discover her power throughout the
series. She has already appeared in the September 28, October 5, October
12, shows; her role as Emma will continue.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2009
You may know that MarkeTrak is an ongoing effort
to characterize the many different aspects of the hearing loss community.
Their reports are always authoritative and informative, and I look forward
to them with great anticipation. The first installment of the MarkeTrak
VIII research series is now available at:
http://www.betterhearing.org/pdfs/Kochkin_MarkeTrak8_OctHR09_hr.pdf
