Even within the d/Deaf and hard of hearing umbrella, our access needs and identities vary widely. That in-between space can feel like nowhere—not “hearing enough” for the hearing world, not “Deaf enough” for Deaf spaces.

Because the very small blood vessels in the inner ear can be narrowed by the presence of an increase in blood glucose, the function of the inner ear hair cells can be affected. The first symptom might be tinnitus or an inability to hear words clearly.

My focus is studying pathologies following noise overexposure. This includes noise-induced hearing loss and pain hyperacusis. I specifically look at how the immune system interacts with the neurons of the ear after noise.

Living without the sense of hearing may bring barriers, but it does not mean living without independence or success. Our role, as people with typical hearing, is to listen, support, and work to improve the systems that are built around us.

This study shows that a single variant in the Foxg1 gene can affect how the brain processes sounds and lead to a heightened sensitivity to noise.

At the time of his death, Hudspeth was pursuing new approaches to restoring hearing through hair cell regeneration, and his lab had recently published work demonstrating the first method for keeping a mammalian cochlea alive outside of the body—an innovation that will provide future researchers with an unprecedented means for studying the cochlea’s live biomechanics.

While the cochlear implant was mapped to set sound frequencies, I heard a soft, staticky noise. I later learned I was hearing a rain downpour and thunder coming from outside the clinic.

Research has not yet fully explained the mechanisms behind efficient hair cell regeneration in birds, but recent discoveries have sparked multiple promising research directions that might bring us closer to developing treatments for humans. 

For someone with a hidden disability, being held to standards of behavior that you cannot meet simply because someone cannot see your disability is a constant challenge. 

Multiple key guitars from Les Paul’s collection are in The Les Paul House of Sound. Hands-on activities guide visitors to explore the science of sound.

A recent study has confirmed what we always knew: Men don’t listen in the same way women do—but not for the reasons many of us think.

It’s ironic and puzzling that when going to hearing clinics, patients who need help with their hearing have to somehow hear and respond to staff.

Two people have the same audiogram results but one can follow conversations at a loud party, while the other feels completely lost and overwhelmed. We set out to examine why.

I had been a crewman on a destroyer and as I recall was never offered hearing protection during live firing. Naval guns are big and loud! After Covid I noticed difficulty understanding my patients, even with prescription hearing aids. 

Before I discovered CART, I often felt left out, despite being physically present. This gap in awareness affects thousands of people. That’s why I speak up, because access delayed is opportunity denied.

New research has identified how two distinct genes guide the regeneration of sensory cells in zebrafish. The discovery improves our understanding of how regeneration works in zebrafish and may guide future studies on hearing loss and regenerative medicine in mammals, including humans.

The strength of pitch encoding under noise reduction was linked to how accurately people recognized words in noise. This suggests that measuring NR effects on subcortical speech encoding is doable, and could offer a novel way to predict who will benefit from NR in hearing aids.

Our review published in Brain Sciences in May 2025 proposes a shift in how we may evaluate and provide care to CI users: by adjusting our current speech-focused performance metrics to incorporate music perception, and by integrating personalized medicine into CI.

Here is a guide to three different types of home adaptations that may help you as an independent senior with hearing loss.

I’d read about how challenging the Social Security Disability Insurance process can be. There are so many variables: your work history, income, disability type, age, and more.

Tinnitus is a symptom, not a condition itself, and can be an early indication of hearing damage. A person with tinnitus perceives sounds without an external source.

Effortful listening is mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting. Learn how it affects the brain—and what to do about it.

If you’ve been diagnosed with a hearing loss, get more opinions. Tell your audiologist you want the telecoil so that when a venue or house of worship has a hearing loop installed.

Our data showed that introducing the mutated nicotinic receptor into otherwise healthy ears can prevent, to some extent, permanent auditory damage caused by loud noise and accelerate hearing recovery.

Earpieces and earbuds, by design, channel sound directly into your ear canal. While this ensures clarity in communication, it also increases the risk of overexposure to harmful noise levels.

Dogs, like human beings, need social interaction and the company of others. That’s important for people with hearing loss to remember. So as challenging as it may be, it’s important that we stay connected and try to communicate.

My hearing aids are not left in a drawer or only worn for selected occasions. I love them. The TV can be a reasonable volume, I can engage in the subtleties of conversation. I don't miss the punch line of jokes.

Les Paul persisted to refine the design for a solid body electric guitar, create multiple gold records, invent today’s recording techniques, be inducted into multiple halls of fame, and play his guitar until two months before he died at 94 years old in August 2009.

What I have discovered is that unlike many other disabilities and chronic conditions, there are no anthologies or collections of personal stories published in book form about hyperacusis. So by publishing this book, I hope to develop greater awareness and understanding about hyperacusis.

Eventually I told my boss that I would have to resign. As it turns out, that was the best decision I could have made. The enormous stress of my job had been a large contributing factor to the severity of my disease, and letting that responsibility go was decidedly the medicine I needed.