Interaction with another deaf person

Hearing Loss
#1

I was at a hospital appointment yesterday. The department deals with both adults and children.

I was waiting in the waiting room and this young teenager came in with his Mum in his wheelchair.

He then came over to me as he saw my hearing aids. He also wore hearing aids.

He wanted to show me that his new hearing aids that Bluetooth to his communication machine as they were Phonak which meant he could hear what was said through the machine. The sound also came out of the machine for others to hear as well.

He was very excited as it had only just been set up for him with his Phonak Bluetooth hearing aids.

I imagine it’ll be only be Phonak that can be linked to his communication machine.

It was nice that he wanted to come over to me to tell me as he saw my hearing aids.

Amazing how far technology has come.

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#2

Thanks for sharing your story. On a side note- I am always a bit annoyed whenever someone describes us HA users as “deaf”. I know there are several definitions, but it is commonly described as “a hearing loss so severe that there is very little or no functional hearing” (see for instance How are the terms deaf, deafened, hard of hearing, and hearing impaired typically used? | DO-IT), i.e. analogous to being “blind” for vision… We don’t call people wearing glasses blind…

#3

Thanks for sharing, what a sweet story.

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#4

I recall you have those “designer” aids - very snazzy looking! :smiley:

#5

LOL!!! I totally agree! And when do we call those with specs “visually impaired”? We don’t even comment about folks wearing glasses cuz they are so ubiquitous!!

But us who FACE UP to our hearing issues and GET the aids and USE them - well, we all know that we’ll be labelled in these anachronistic ways.

And may I just interject that with the Phonak Lumity Life aids, few if ANY even know I have a hearing prob. Yes, if the battery charge wore down, or a fire alarm went off when they aren’t in I’d be DEAF as a CINDERBLOCK. But that’s not the 98% of time when folks are dealing with me.

I guess I just don’t like the negative labeling. And - while on the subject - I watched an episode of the newer “Hawai’i 5-0” last night when McGarrett’s sister was working as a companion for an elderly gent in a wheelchair. His hearing aid looked like a flesh-toned twin of my TOILET PLUNGER not even plugged in to his one dang EAR. It was just stuck on kinda, sorta, ready to fall completely OUT. And this was in about 2010 ferpetessake! I mean COME ON. I was wearing custom-molded AGX aids back then in BOTH ears.

I rant. But the labels and images pushed by CLUELESS people out there annoys me. :unamused:

#6

I am an audiologist and have a few patients who I would NOT call deaf (have lots of usable hearing), but they identify as deaf. I figure that is their place to call themselves what they’d like.

In a similar vein, I’m diabetic. There are lots of people who hate that phrase and prefer “person with diabetes” - this sounds ridiculous to me. So it’s ultimately up to each person as to how they want to identify themself!

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