Les Paul, whose birthday was June 9, 1915, was famous for the solid body electric guitar and many innovations related to recording music. He also had compromised hearing, and wore hearing aids in both ears. Although his hearing loss was not caused by loud noise, almost all of his rock musician friends had some level of hearing loss from performing and being around loud music. Les and most of his musician friends also had tinnitus.
The Challenge of Communication During the Pandemic and Beyond
In New York City, we are required to wear face coverings in public and practice social distancing to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Non-essential work, like my own part-time job as an educational researcher for a university, must be completed remotely. With these vital public health measures emerge new challenges for people with hearing loss, and I’m advocating for myself and creating solutions when and where I am able.
18 Years Later
Our twins, James and Riley, were born on August 23. They did not pass this initial hearing screen, so auditory brainstem response (ABR) tests were administered in the hospital. Two weeks after a second ABR with our audiologist, they were both diagnosed with moderate bilateral sensorineural hearing loss.
Paint Has a Sound
I wear hearing devices but over the years as I have struggled with my hearing, I could feel and see changes in how I interact with others, in social situations, with family, and, more personally, in how I started to withdraw and become more introverted and retrospective.
Parenting With Hearing Loss: It Is What It Is!
I was diagnosed in my late 20s, and my boys have lived their entire lives with a mother who hears differently than them. There’s never been a big conversation or explanation, and they’ve never had to adapt to anything new. It is what it is. We’ve had conversations about the genetic risk. My mother, her sisters, my grandmother, and my great aunts all have hearing loss. So my sons are tested once a year to make sure I didn’t pass it on. Day to day, though, it’s our reality, and my boys don’t know an alternative.
Hearing the Passion
For Alex, each new language is a hidden art with its secrets and beauty waiting to be discovered. Alex was in elementary school when he developed an interest in foreign television cartoons, including programs from Italy and Japan. His discovery of their cultures soon evolved into a fascination with their languages.
Valleys and Peaks on My Hearing Loss Journey
My hearing loss journey has been gradual—like driving slowly up into high mountains on a twisty road, adjusting to changes in altitude at each major peak. I have been hard of hearing since my 20s, with hearing loss accelerating in my 30s to 50s, and now stable with small age-related changes each year.
Action on Captions
I’m a longtime radio broadcaster and after 25 years on the air, I owned an advertising agency where all the work was creating radio and TV ads and video scripts all day, every day. I’ve spent nearly my entire adult life in a studio, wearing headphones.
An Unexpected Side Effect
At age 30 in the spring of 1960, I was diagnosed with otosclerosis and underwent stapedectomy surgery for my left ear. Due to a “sneeze” a few days after, the pin flew off the mount and ruptured the inner ear. I was left with no hearing in the left ear. The right ear with a simple hearing aid was fine. I was told a hearing aid will always benefit me due to the very slow progression of otosclerosis.
Processing Auditory Processing
In January 2018, working as a digital producer, I was running a test setup in the auditorium of a London art gallery. Due to faulty audio equipment, a large set of wall speakers blew right behind where I was standing, exposing me to an incredibly high-level sound blast.