hard_of_hearing | Recent Entries

So, hi. As a bit of an introduction, I'm 23, mostly deaf (diagnosed as progessive sensorineural hearing loss a little under 20 years ago; reading around, thinking, and self-observation leads me to strongly suspect the cause is a degenerative issue with the vestibulocochlear nerve. I may be an actualfax speshul snowflake! \o/ I can't afford to get it definitively diagnosed, though), and can more or less count on my fingers the ASL I know that's not fingerspelling.

I decided a few years back that not learning was probably kinda short-sighted of me, but lack of funds for lessons and lack of video-streaming internet (seriously, dialup) hampered me a lot!

Having recently upgraded to highspeed, finally,

cme (who's also interested in learning) pointed out to me that there's bound to be some good instructional videos to be had out there on the intertubes.

Neither of us have any idea how to even begin looking for and weeding through videos on YouTube for good basics, though - so naturally I searched DW for a relevant comm.

And I found here! :D So, any advice?

Current Mood: sleepy

trialia

Anyone else here have auditory processing disorder? I find it's hard to explain to people the difference between physical deafness and APD...

Current Location: Manchester, England

angelikitten

Blogging Against Disablism Day, May 1st 2011

Blogging Against Disablism Day 2011 is tomorrow! Please join in if you can.

For more information, please go to the BADD 2011 main post.

(Sorry about the lack of notice, but I just found out myself.)

angelikitten

I've been looking for a badge/button that tells people that I'm hard of hearing and that I may therefore have trouble hearing/understanding them, in the hopes that it might help when I'm talking to people, and I just found one!

Anyway, I thought that I'd share the link here, just in case anyone else was looking for one: badges at Hearing Concern Link.

(If you know of any other places that sell them, feel free to mention them in the comments.)

Current Mood: accomplished

angelikitten

Has anyone here been to a subtitled/captioned showing of a film at the cinema? What was it like?

(I keep meaning to go to one at my local cinema, but the last 4 have been for 3D films, and I can't afford that right now.)

Current Mood: curious

angelikitten

Dear bank I bank at,

Why do you hate me? I know I'm not your best customer, but you have made a lot of money out of me by way of fees in the past, so it balances out. You know my logic makes sense here.

All that aside, why do you keep insisting that I need to be signed up to telephone banking? I asked you to take my telephone number off your records months ago (which it turns out you didn't, thanks for that) because I can't hear properly. I can just about understand people over the phone if I try, but it's tiring and I make a lot of mistakes. Mistakes that I really can't afford to make when banking.

Can't you do something about this, like maybe putting a note on my file saying that I can't hear properly or something? Anything so that I don't have to explain it every single time I go into the branch. It wouldn't just help me - it would save several of your cashiers from having to hear me complain about it for a start (the one I saw today went from having body language which said "stop whinging" to "oh shit, sorry!" so fast when I said I couldn't hear properly, it was almost funny. Almost.).

No love,
Me

[Crossposted to my journal.]

Current Mood: irritated

angelikitten

Recently, in a lot of journals and communities I've been reading, people have been posting video and sound clips with little or no explanation. Until I can get something to help with my hearing, this is about as useful to me as a chocolate fireguard.

Is there any way to bring this to people's attention without looking like I'm picking on people, attention-seeking, or just being generally annoying? I just hate being left out so much.

Current Mood: upset

nerakrose

i have many friends who are hard of hearing / nearly deaf but i've found that we all have the same equipment... hearing aids and other things from Phonak. i don't think Phonak has monopoly on the market in Denmark, but it made me curious what else there is. my first hearing aids (which i got in Iceland, before i moved to Denmark) were not Phonak but unfortunately that's so long time ago that i don't remember the brand. i do know that my first ones were analogue but all the others i've had after that have been digital (save for once i had my hearing aids in for repair and got a set of analogue aids in the meantime) and i muchly prefer the digital.

i've got Phonak Savia Art hearing aids (a not so good photo here but it's the only i have) in beautiful pearl-shine white. to go with them i've got a Phonak FM sender and two receivers (one for each aid) to assist me when i'm in school. some of my friends like to use the FM system at all times, but i have only needed this help in a classroom when there's 30 people writing notes, whispering, flicking pages, doing all sorts of stuff that accumulated makes quite a lot of noise that masks the teacher's voice.
i really like the FM sender because the T function hasn't always been optimal for me, and sometimes the line has been broken or disturbed. however, i do still have the T option in my hearing aids so i can choose to use it in the cinema or at public places where it might be applicable (such as the church).

do any of you use extra equipment and if yes, in what situations? do you pay attention to design and colour? i've previously had blue hearing aids, silver and boring neutral brown and have often been told that 'you're so brave for wearing coloured hearing aids that everyone can see!' -for me it's not about being 'brave' but about the fact that i want my stuff to look nice (even if it clashes with my hair) and as a bonus people might notice i have them - so i might save two minutes of my life of explaining 'i don't hear so well so can you please etc....'

and as a little curiosity...how easy do you find it learning new languages? my deaf friends don't really manage (or want to) which is understandable, my hard-of-hearing friends are generally not interested (and many of them are really bad at other languages) so i've always wondered if it's me being weird about the language aspect. i speak 3 languages fluently (icelandic, danish, english), german half-fluently (sorry - i just have some ingrained dislike towards its utterly illogical grammar) and i'm currently learning finnish. i also speak both danish and icelandic sign language but i must admit i have forgot a lot of it because i haven't used the danish one in five years and the icelandic one in ten years. :/

cesy

(Disclaimer: I am not hard of hearing. Please correct me if I say anything stupid.)

This is a discussion I have had so many times with people who say that they are good at public speaking, they can project their voice and so they don't need a microphone. Apparently they cannot understand that the microphone connects to the hearing loop, so for people who rely on their hearing aids being switched to T and using the loop, no matter how much they're good at shouting, it won't help.

Similarly deserving of a slow death are those sound-desk operators who sit there listening and reckon that if they can hear an okay balance coming through the speakers, it's probably alright, rather than picking up the headphones in front of them to check that what's coming through the loop is also balanced okay. Remember, people, some musical instruments are acoustic, and sound loud if you have no trouble hearing, but if they aren't miked they don't come through on the loop properly. You need to adjust the sound balance for both.

angelikitten

You know what I really love?

I love the fact that people assume that I can hear properly.

I love the looks of surprise I get when I tell someone that I need them to do something differently so that I can understand them. I love the patronizing statements of "You're doing so well!" in regards to how well I communicate with people¹. I love the freakshow I become when I tell someone that I can only hear in one ear. I love how people think it's appropriate to test this by shouting in my deaf ear².

I also love how TV programmes will advertise themselves as having subtitles, and then not show them. I love how they can disappear halfway through for no reason. I love it when the subtitles have been fine until a certain point when they suddenly decide to show what someone is saying a whole minute before they actually say it, or a whole minute after. I love how, sometimes, they start showing subtitles for a whole different episode/programme for no reason. I love how, in the case of one channel, they don't show subtitles for anything, because people who need subtitles can't possibly enjoy comedy.

I love all these things. I really really do.

/sarcasm

PS: We may need a "rant" tag. Because I've got a feeling that I'm going to be using it a lot.

¹Seriously, I've really had that. I'll take the I couldn't tell! type statements with something close to good grace, but that took the biscuit.
²Again, that's really happened.

Current Mood: annoyed

tralfamadore

I want to take a moment to welcome all of you to DreamWidth's

hard_of_hearing community. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, please do not hesitate for a moment to direct them to me either via my journal, a private message to my account, or an email to andavis86@gmail.com

To get the community started, I encourage everyone who feels comfortable to make an introductory post telling the rest of the members of this community a bit about yourself. You don't have to share anything more than what you feel willing to, but some brief information about you as well as how the hard of hearing/deaf/Deaf community relates to you would be wonderful.

Remember, this community is what we all make of it. Posts should be related to hard of hearing issues, but beyond that anything goes. Rants and raves, reviews of technology, questions and concerns, hearing aid hacks, artwork... The only limitation is your imagination!

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Hard of Hearing

Recent Entries

ASL?

Just wondering...

(no subject)

I've been looking for these everywhere!

Subtitles at cinemas?

Yep, I'm complaining again.

Advice?

wondering about equipment and languages

You know what else annoys me?

This is quite possibly going to be the most sarcastic entry ever made...

Welcome to Hard of Hearing at DreamWidth!

Profile

January 2012