If irony were for sale, we’d all be rich. We pay premium prices to sit in dining rooms specifically to communicate, yet the room itself makes communication nearly impossible.
Finding the Middle Ground
The key is to introduce myself as usual and let people get to know my personality first. If I miss something during the conversation, I simply let them know: “Hey, I have hearing loss, do you mind saying that again?”
Hearing Loss Doesn’t Define Me
I don’t always think my teammates understand that I have hearing loss. It’s because hearing loss is invisible. But I live with it every moment.
A Poem About Living With Hearing Loss Since Birth
Partial silence/Hours in thought and talk/My dog listened and understood/Time in hours on the old back porch/I was in my own safe, social world.
Hearing Aids Cost Thousands. A State Program Helped Me Pay for Them.
What changed things was a program almost nobody talks about: state vocational rehabilitation. Every state has a version of this department, just under a different name. The idea behind all of them is the same: If a disability is standing between you and a job, the state will help remove it. Hearing loss counts. Hearing aids count.
Saying Yes to Hearing Better
What Are Your Tips for Making Music With Ménière’s?
When performing, I usually play and sing with a small amplifier, using a microphone for vocals, a jazz banjo, or a vintage arch-top guitar with a pickup. The combination of Ménière’s and tinnitus creates practical challenges onstage.
Catwalk to Clinic
Diagnosed with central auditory processing disorder as a child, this newly graduated actress-model plans to use her degree in speech-language pathology and audiology to improve outcomes for fellow CAPD patients.
Two Years of Hears
Most people don’t think about protecting their hearing until it’s too late. Every concert, loud commute, and noisy day adds up—and there’s no undo button.
The Music Inside My Head
My brain now makes up music with a drone tone mostly in the key of D, pounding rhythms, melodies, and harmonies often in different keys.