Whether you’re knowledgeable about noise-induced hearing loss or not, you would probably try to avoid things like having a trumpet blasted point-blank into your ear. But that was me, 10 years ago, in a 7th grade band class, crying from the pain in my ear and leaving school early so my mom could whisk me straight to an audiologist.
Memories and Music: My Life as a Real-Life ‘CODA’
I cannot tell you how many times in my 32 years people have asked me, “What is it like to have parents who are deaf?” My answer has always been the same, regardless of who is asking or how old I am, “What is it like to have hearing parents?”
A ‘Complicated and Special’ Case
In June 2010, I stepped off a plane in Los Angeles with a painfully full left ear, muffled hearing, throbbing eyes, vertigo, and a migraine. I also got off that plane with no idea I would straddle the line between a nondisabled and disabled identity for the rest of my life.
Family and Friends Don't Understand Your Hearing Challenges?
If, like me, you have a hearing loss, you know what your hearing challenges are. But what about your friends and family? Do they have challenges communicating with you? I bet the answer is yes. Why wouldn’t they? Hearing loss is a communication disorder that affects all the people in our lives.
Just Because Hearing Loss Is Invisible Doesn’t Mean It’s Less Real
I think because I was in my 20s and thought working at a nightclub was fun and interesting, and I was surrounded by talented musicians and entertainers, I didn’t stop to consider that I was going to the equivalent of four concerts a week. Not even concerts with two-hour sets—more like multi-day music festivals with four bands each performing two-hour sets!
To Create a Culture Shift About Healthy Hearing, Start Young (and Other Key Strategies)
Finding answers to fundamental questions—such as, “Why does this age group enjoy loud sounds?,” “What impact does hearing damage have on this age group?,” “What will truly motivate them to use hearing protection devices?”—will help develop effective and sustainable hearing conservation programs.
10 Ways to Develop Accessibility in the Workplace
Accessibility is making sure everyone—whether disabled or abled—has easy access around the workplace as well as its facilities. The concept of accessibility at work goes far beyond physical access and involves so much more.
’Should I Get a Cochlear Implant?‘
For Alex, getting a haircut in town becomes an opportunity to talk about his cochlear implant with a curious stranger as well as reflect on his own experience getting an implant at a very young age.
Helping Others Has Helped Me
Despite all this, including owning earplugs, it didn’t occur to me until working on the Keep Listening prevention campaign for Hearing Health Foundation how damage to your hearing is cumulative, and that I’ve been doing additional damage to my hearing through some of my daily routines.
Charity Talks
Brooke Dunefsky, a high school student in New York, recently approached us to be featured on her podcast Charity Talks. Last week she interviewed Timothy Higdon, our president and CEO, about Hearing Health Foundation: our mission, our two research programs (Emerging Research Grants and the Hearing Restoration Project), and our Keep Listening prevention program.