- Using hearing aids. It is essential to keep up-to-date
with medical advances by consulting qualified hearing
specialists and getting yourself fitted with the most
appropriate hearing aids for you. This may include what looks
right for you as well as what makes you hear better. (For
me and others like me, though, no hearing aids, however
expensive, are satisfactory. For more discussion see the pages
on sensitivity and pain; unbalanced
hearing and distortion.)
- Maintaining your self esteem and the respect of others.
Deafness can be isolating and demoralising. So keep reminding
yourself that you are as valuable an individual as the next
person - because you are! It is important, though, to educate
the people around you about their attitudes to deafness. (See
the pages on attitudes; how
others can help deaf people to
interact more effectively and common
reactions to deafness.) It is also important to play your
part by accepting your limitations and not depressing others by
being disgruntled and upset all the time.
- Responding to invitations to social activities. There
will inevitably be background noise and chatter in most social
situations and there will probably also be music - all things
that deaf people find particularly troublesome.
- The most readily acceptable invitations are probably for
garden parties and other out-of-doors social activities. These can
actually be enjoyable! Being out-of-doors there is no
reflection from walls and the general noise level is lower.
You can move around and interact for just a few minutes at a
time with small groups and make an exit as soon as you have
had enough.
- Drinks receptions can be manageable if you are careful.
Try to hover on the outskirts of the group, with an open
area, like a door or window, behind you, or even just
outside an open door. That limits the reflected sound.
- Restaurant invitations are the most difficult to handle unless you choose a quiet time of day and are with just a
very few close and understanding friends. The trouble is,
though, that you can't be sure about the noise level until
you get there and then you are stuck for the duration. If
you really feel that you have to be there, try to negotiate a
seat where you are next to someone who understands that you
won't be conversing much. Also try to sit where there is an
open space behind you, as noise from in front can seem more
acceptable than from behind.
For more information, see social
gatherings.
- Choosing a phone. Are you using the best possible for you? Or are you just trying to use the one that
someone else bought sometime, somewhere? It is crucial to have a
phone that first and foremost works for you because that can
dramatically enhance your social life. One that doesn't work for
you can seriously curtail social interaction and be depressing
and isolating. For a discussion on choosing a house phone and a
mobile phone, see phoning.)
- Coping with engine noise when flying. You need to
experiment beforehand with ear defenders or ear plugs to find
ones that work for you. For more information, see flying.
- Coping with ear pain due to pressure changes when flying.
There is advice on this in the page on flying.)
- Getting the most out of listening to the radio. Radio
is difficult for anyone with hearing loss because there are no
helpful visual signals. So speech really does need to be very
clear indeed, and you have to know your radio programmes. For
suggestions, see TV and radio.
- Getting the most out of watching television. Television
has the advantage over radio that deaf people can tell quite a
lot about what is going on from the visual signals. Yet they do
seem to find that the sound effects of drama are too loud and
the speech is too quiet or slurred. As little can be done about
this, it is important to watch television in a suitable environment.
For a discussion see TV
and radio.
- Reminding yourself that "time's up" There is
no shortage of alerts for people with good hearing, but if, as
someone with hearing loss, you want want to set an alert for
more than a few minutes in the future, it is all too easy to go
about your business and leave the 'regular' alert in another
room and then miss it. The page on timer
alerts explains how to modify a readily available kitchen
timer for a deaf person.
- Participating in committees or working groups. Deaf
people's needs can be somewhat irritating to groups which are
trying to get work done in a limited time. So you need to
develop your own guidelines on whether or not to join in
committees and working groups. What guidelines would you develop
for yourself? See the page on committee
work for a discussion.
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