This is the life of a hearing-impaired person.
We are not deaf, and, therefore, most of us do not read lips, sign or wear hearing devices 100% of the time. We try to preserve whatever hearing we have left. We walk softly on the fine line between the hearing and deaf communities.
Even our friends are selected carefully. We cultivate friendships based on who is sensitive to our needs. They are the people who are willing to speak a little louder and more distinctly. They are the people who are willing to repeat themselves if they see from your expression that you didn’t hear all that was said. They don’t wait for you to apologize or “phase out” of a difficult-to-hear conversation. They make sure that you never feel ashamed because of your disability.
Each day is a series of plans: how to seat yourself and others so that you have the best hearing advantage, where to go for business meetings and social events to avoid loud, busy places, etc. However, sometimes it is difficult to control the situation.
Envision going to the theater or movies only to find the audience laughing with delight when you have no idea why. Maybe you smile or chuckle to camouflage your discomfort, hoping that this will not recur throughout the movie. These facilities usually offer headsets, which enable you to amplify the volume. Unfortunately, many are not well maintained and cause a static-like sound. It is always a pleasure — and a surprise — when we can enjoy a movie without struggling.
We sometimes avoid talking on the phone, knowing that we may need you to repeat yourself several times. You can understand why some of us choose to communicate by email or text!
We arrive at speaker functions and seminars at least 30 minutes early, so that we can get a much needed front-row seat.
Even in the health club, we wear our hearing aids to help follow the class routines. We certainly don’t want to be caught doing push-ups when the rest of the group is doing sit-ups.
In spite of our disability, many of us continue to be social and take part in group activities. There is always the fear of asking a question that has already been asked and answered. We understand that you may find it funny, but please know that it is mortifying to us.
On occasion, we may try to monopolize the conversation in order to control what is being said. Even with all the accommodations we give ourselves, all too often we mix up or miss words. We go home feeling embarrassed and wonder why we subject ourselves to group functions.
This is not meant to be a sad commentary. Please do not pity us and certainly don’t avoid us. We are very functional and grateful for the hearing ability we still have. We simply need “a little help from our friends.”
By Terri Goldstein, reprinted with the author’s permission from Los Angeles Times. January 9, 2012
Goldstein is a retired educator who is now a collage artist in Newport Coast. She can be reached at Tgold222@aol.com.
Fortunately, when it comes to telephone communication, we seem to be a step further. TTY technology has been on the market for several decades now. It allows a deaf or speech-impaired person to type on a standard TTY keyboard and read the other party’s responses on an LCD screen. If the hearing person does not have a TTY, he or she can go through the Relay Service (by dialing 711 in the USA). Through Voice Carry Over (or VCO for short), a Call Assistant relays the speech to the deaf person by typing what’s being said. If the person is speech impaired instead, he or she will type on their TTY keyboard. The Call Assistant reads what’s being typed to the other party, who responds verbally and directly to the TTY user. This type of call is referred to as Hearing Carry Over (or HCO). Both services–VCO and HCO–are free and confidential; the caller only pays for the long-distance toll charges. Please check our website for a complete listing of 
A caption telephone displays captions of the phone conversation on a large, easy-to-ready screen. The user of the caption phone reads the message and talks back to the caller. Compared to TTY, call captioning technology presents some advantages. For one thing, the deaf person can direct dial from their caption phone without a need to go through Voice Relay. The call automatically routes to a captioning center that transcribes their voice using voice recognition technology. Now you ask me, “How is this possible if voice recognition is not 100% accurate?” Here’s the catch: A captioning professional who’s been trained for the job acts on the background by voicing what they hear. A more advanced type of voice recognition “hears” the voice and converts it into text. A clear advantage of call captioning is that there are hardly any delays in the phone interactions. Plus, the phone costs considerably less than a TTY.
