Fifty percent of maximum volume on a power-hungry headphone can be quite gentle. Fifty percent on a sensitive pair of earbuds, plugged into a strong source, can be loud enough to permanently harm hearing.
Instead of Yelling
A person becomes hard of hearing, caregivers and families start raising their voices, no one likes shouting at another person, the conversations decline.
Why Knowledge Isn’t Enough
A simple, universal visual warning system (like a red, yellow, or green noise-level indicator at a concert venue, racetrack, or theme park) instantly conveys danger, warning, or safety to people of all ages. Combined with access to basic foam earplugs and insertion instructions, a simple prompt can transform behavior.
Sound of the Future
Hearing loss began affecting how I saw myself. There is a word in Chinese that describes how I felt: 自卑 (zìbēi), a feeling of insecurity and inferiority that makes you shrink yourself around other people.
An Imperfect Solution to an Irritating Problem
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.