Ask the hearing-impaired

[Mr. Green Eyes]

Go a head, ask me anything.

 

[I'm Ready]

how bad is the impairment?

can you still go to concerts?

what was the cause of the impairment? (born with it or self-inflicted)

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

It's actually not that bad. I wear a hearing aid in each ear, and with them I can hear pretty much like a normal person. If I can't hear someone, then I'll just ask them to speak up. Without the aids, I can hear ok, like I can't hear people talking softly or I need the music turned up, if I'm listening to my IPod or in the shower. But, I can still hear people snoring at night, if their in the same room with me.

 

[UberBeaver]

But, I can still hear people snoring at night, if their in the same room with me.

Oh, man. That's just not fair.

Has this been a condition since birth or did it develop later in life?

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

Add on to the 1st post. I have only been to 2 concerts: a Yes concert with my dad when I was 13, and to the Live Aid concert in Philly when I was 16 or 17, again with dad and my uncle. So, yes I can go to concerts. If the music gets to loud, then I just take out my hearing aids in replacement for putting in ear plugs. So it all works out.

I was born 14 weeks premature, weighing at 1lb. 6 oz. The doctors gave me a 95 percent chance of not suriving. I had a hole in my heart, my lungs collapsed 3 times, two herinas, rickious, (know I spelled that wrong), a blood disease from a dirty needle, and tons of blood tranfustions and needles. The dirty needle caused me to get a severe blood disease that needed medication that would saved my life, but cause hearing loss. So, it was all because of a dirty needle.

 

[I'm Ready]

I was born 14 weeks premature, weighing at 1lb. 6 oz. The doctors gave me a 95 percent chance of not suriving. I had a hole in my heart, my lungs collapsed 3 times, two herinas, rickious, (know I spelled that wrong), a blood disease from a dirty needle, and tons of blood tranfustions and needles. The dirty needle caused me to get a severe blood disease that needed medication that would saved my life, but cause hearing loss. So, it was all because of a dirty needle. [/B]

wow thats awful

 

[Liesje]

Wow, you were wonder baby to overcome that!

Are you more aware of your other senses? Do you compensate for a lack of hearing by being more watchful or alert with your eyes?

Do you ever get scared or panic when you can't hear? I have very, very poor eyesight (my dad is legally blind) and sometimes I'll wake up at night and almost panic when I can't see. I have this strange fear of being trapped somewhere without my glasses.

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

Are you more aware of your other senses?

Not really, my sense of smell isn't that good, get that from dad, and i wear contacts, the eye sight isn't that great. Suprizing, my sense of taste is pretty good.

 

[yolland]

I'm hearing disabled as well, have been since my early 20s. Like you I'm not deaf, or even close to it really...just limited in certain ways that I've had to learn to work with. Because my hearing loss is neurological, hearing aids are not an option for me and I rely on a combination of context and closely watching people's faces as they talk in order to make out what they're saying.

I'm curious how, if at all, your hearing loss has affected your needs in basic settings like the classroom or the workplace. Also if you've had any other health consequences from your illness as a baby...that sounds just awful!

Lies, I can kind of relate to what you're saying about being caught without your glasses...my vision is nowhere near as poor as yours it sounds like, and I wear contacts not glasses, but I did have the experience once of walking home from work in the dark without them (I'd laughed until I cried at something at work that day, and thus wound up losing my contacts ), and it was pretty frightening--I realized only after I'd already started out that not only would I be unable to see it until the last minute if someone approached me (not the most comforting thought, as I was walking through some pretty bad neighborhoods), but furthermore that once I got to my own street I couldn't tell which house was mine, as they all looked like featureless blobs to me.

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

Do you compensate for a lack of hearing by being more watchful or alert with your eyes? -Lies

Yes, I'm very obsevant of other people and things. I sit in front of the class, or closest to the teacher. I have to have them facing me, and if their speaking to softly, I'll ask them to speak up.

Do you ever get scared or panic when you can't hear?-Lies

Kind of, it does get upsetting. Whenever that happens, I just stare, intensely, at whoever is talking, and try to hear them. I can hear men better then women because their voices are deeper.

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

I'm curious how, if at all, your hearing loss has affected your needs in basic settings like the classroom or the workplace.- Yolland

I sit in front of the class, or closest to the teacher. I have to have them facing me, and if their speaking to softly, I'll ask them to speak up.

 

[yolland]

How about foreign language study? Have you ever tried that and if so, did your hearing deficits create problems?

P.S. Do you know how to use the quote function? I just ask because I notice you're typing out everyone's questions rather than quoting them.

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

I did Latin for two years, because for the most part, it was written. I wanted to take French, everybody in my family took it, but I knew that it would be difficult to pronouse the words. Even Latin was somewhat difficult.

And, no, I don't know how to use the quote function. Can you help me out? I thought all you had to do was copy it onto the reply box.

 

[yolland]

Sure, all you have to do is click the "quote" button at the lower right of the post you're replying to. That will pull up the entire post, complete with bracketed commands which format the whole thing in a quote box, as well as putting the quoted text in bold and the original poster's name in italics. Then you can either backspace, or highlight then delete, to get rid of parts of the quoted text that aren't relevant to your reply--just be sure not to delete the commands in brackets ([/QUOTE], [/B], etc.) Also be sure your own reply starts after the final [/QUOTE] command, or else your reply will wind up bolded in the box as well. If you want to split up the post you're quoting so as to reply to different parts of it separately, you can do that too by typing in [/B][/QUOTE] where you want the quote box to end, then typing in

where you want it to resume. It takes a few tries to get the hang of it, but you do always have 60 minutes to use the "edit" button to fix any mistakes.

At the lower left of the screen you type into when you're composing a reply, there's a little box titled "Forum Rules" which explains the various bracketed commands you can use and how they work (click "vB code").

Of course, some people do prefer to just cut and paste whatever they're responding to instead, because they find the quote box unsightly or whatever, and that's fine too--I just wanted to make sure you knew how to do it, because it really does make things easier sometimes.
---------------------------------


I was wondering about the language thing because that's probably the issue that's created the most distress for me professionally as my hearing deteriorates--I teach South Asian politics, and need to be able to speak and understand several languages for my research. I'm still able to get by pretty well with the languages I learned before my hearing got to the point where consonants became hard to discern (late 20s, roughly--I'm 35 now), but I'm troubled by the fact that it's likely to be difficult if not impossible for me to master any new languages in the future. So I can sympathize completely with your disappointment at not being able to study French.

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

I was wondering about the language thing because that's probably the issue that's created the most distress for me professionally as my hearing deteriorates--I teach South Asian politics, and need to be able to speak and understand several languages for my research. I'm still able to get by pretty well with the languages I learned before my hearing got to the point where consonants became hard to discern (late 20s, roughly--I'm 35 now), but I'm troubled by the fact that it's likely to be difficult if not impossible for me to master any new languages in the future. So I can sympathize completely with your disappointment at not being able to study French.

That's sad to hear about that the new languages problem. At lease you do pretty well with your old languages. Hope that I got the quote right.

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

Just to tell you all, you can ask me other stuff besides the hearing impairment. Just a thought.

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

I'm hearing disabled as well, have been since my early 20s. Like you I'm not deaf, or even close to it really...just limited in certain ways that I've had to learn to work with.

To tell you truth, you're the 1st hearing impaired person, besides my great aunt who passed away when I was 13, that I've met, in real life or on the net. It gets pretty loney being the only one in your whole pre high and high school schooling.

 

[Axver]

Do you ever find that your mobility is restricted by your hearing impairment, such as when you need to catch a train or plane? I ask because my vision impairment often leaves me confused and unable to read train station signs, airport gate numbers, and the like, so I just have to hope that there are clear verbal announcements such as "next stop, Central". When that kind of thing is absent or muffled, I find myself a bit stuck. Do you experience the reverse and find yourself disadvantaged by a lack of decent signage?

 

[Butterscotch]

So you're not actually "deaf"?

 

[yolland]

To tell you truth, you're the 1st hearing impaired person, besides my great aunt who passed away when I was 13, that I've met, in real life or on the net. It gets pretty loney being the only one in your whole pre high and high school schooling.

It is true, isn't it? I've had one student in all my years of teaching who was hearing impaired, and I know a couple elderly retirees who are too, but I'm not aware of anyone else in my usual social environment who is. I think the archetypal hearing-disabled person as most folks imagine them--and I used to think this way myself--is either A) a completely deaf person who you just hope can lipread, because you sure don't know ASL or B) an extremely hard-of-hearing elderly person who you have to shout at in order to be heard at all. The thought that there's an in-between to these just doesn't cross most people's awareness, I think.

Most of my friends, family and students are very understanding and know exactly what to do to make sure I'm hearing the maximum amount possible of what they're saying, so I can't really complain much. But there are some kinds of social situations--like, say, sitting with a bunch of people at a table in a restaurant that's anything less than quiet--where I just have to resign myself from the beginning to the fact that I'm going to miss out on 70% of what's said, have no idea what everyone's laughing about most of the time, and so on. Or carrying on a conversation in a car--unless maybe it's a really quiet car and I'm in the backseat and it's someone else in the backseat talking. I'm sure you've probably had similar experiences with school cafeterias, noisy classrooms and the like. For now I can still just manage to get by on the telephone, but I know there will come a time when I can't...which is where I'm grateful to live in an era of text messaging, emails and the like. At least for me, these are the kind of situations that can feel very isolating and it's often tempting to simply avoid them altogether, but you can't really; they're just so basic to normal socialization.

-----------------------------------------

I know the question wasn't aimed at me, but...Axver, I've experienced a little of what you're describing, especially when traveling by train abroad (train stations tend to be much less well-signed than airports). The absolute worst setup for me is the sort of thing you often see in Europe, where you have to buy tickets or seek info from someone sitting in dim light behind thick plexiglass in an extremely noisy room, speaking heavily accented English or some language that you haven't used since college. Usually those people wind up getting exasperated and shouting at me in exaggeratedly slow and hyperenunciated English, assuming I'm a dumb American who can't recognize anything not in my own accent. But shouting doesn't help me much because my main problem isn't volume--that's compromised too, but the real issue is my auditory nerves can't transmit speech correctly nor parse it out from background noise appropriately, so everything sounds muffled and distorted, as if people were speaking with their hands over their mouths. Plus even when there isn't plexiglass, a lot of people tend to be looking down, or at their monitor or whatever, rather than at me when they talk, and then on top of that they'll mumble--sometimes even when they start shouting, they still keep looking away (I've no idea why, but French people in particular seem to do this). That sort of thing is really frustrating, but like I said earlier, I do understand it--the idea that there are hearing problems which can't be "fixed" by simply shouting just doesn't occur to most people.

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

So you're not actually "deaf"?

No, I'm not. I can hear, just not that well.

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

Do you ever find that your mobility is restricted by your hearing impairment, such as when you need to catch a train or plane?

I actually don't travel that much, even through I love going to new places, and I'll love to go to the UK someday. But whenever I do, I stay with whoever I'm traveling with, which is family members or friends. So I just follow them and stay with my little group.

I don't like using the phone that much, whenever I do use it I always have to have the volume up to the highest setting possible, other wise it's hard to hear the person on the other line. I don't even own a cell phone, which is kind of rare in this day and age. When I was younger, it was almost impossible for me to hear anyone on the phone, even with the volume up at the highest setting, because my hearing aids were bad.

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

I just wanted to say that all of you are coming up with some good questions. Keep it up!!

 

[Drea]

Yolland - when you have a problem like you've described in Europe, do you tend to explain that you have a hearing problem or just leave people to assume the "dumb American" stereotype? If it was me, I'd be tempted to respond in the native language "I have a hearing problem, NOT a language problem" and be rather snarky (of course I'm also not American, so that would be part of it *g*)

Mr. Green Eyes: I've been to music festivals where there are ASL interpreters and a special seating section near the front for the hearing impaired - would you find them a distraction at a concert or would it help you enjoy the music more?

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

Mr. Green Eyes: I've been to music festivals where there are ASL interpreters and a special seating section near the front for the hearing impaired - would you find them a distraction at a concert or would it help you enjoy the music more?

Hm... That's a good question. I honestly didn't know that they had that. Whenever I go to a music festival, I always sit in or near the front. So, yes, it would be helpful, and I would enjoy the show more. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

Keep it up, I'm more than happy to answer all of your questions about anything.

 

[b. john allen]

have you ever encountered any psychological problems because of your hearing impairment?

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

Expain what you mean by psychological problems.

 

[b. john allen]

feeling to be left behind at anything?
paranoid for people watching you because you've got funny thingies in your ears?
Do/did people assume you're bad at sports (like in gym class at school before) because you've got hearing difficulties? (though being born 14 weeks premature might have something to do with this? perhaps?)

or, to a larger extent, has it bought you down? why can't I be "normal"?

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

Good questions, yes, I did feel left behind. I didn't really have any friends when I was in elementary school, except for three friends that I had outside of school. It got kind of lonely at times. But I had my books, and that was enough for me.
People didn't assume that I was bad at sports, I was. I hated PE, it was terrible, very boring. I was only good at swimming, we had a pool at my school.
You won't believe how tiring it got of hearing,"What are those things in your ears?" I most of heard that more than a hundred times or more.
At first, I wondered what my life could of been like if I wasn't born early, but by the time I was around 8 or so, I realised that it wasn't good to dweal on the past, and on the what ifs.
These were some good questions. Hope that I was able to answer them to your liking. Keep on asking more, and not just on the impairment.