I haven’t written much
about hearing loss on this blog for a number of reasons, but I’ve been feeling
led to be more open about it. I’m
going to start by listing the most common misconceptions I encounter on a regular
basis.
1.) Either you’re hearing or you’re deaf, and there’s
no in-between.
There
is actually quite a bit of in-between.
A person with normal hearing will hear any sound that’s 20 decibels or
higher. A profoundly deaf person
will hear at 90 decibels or higher, if they can hear anything at all. That leaves quite a bit of
in-between.
2.) “You must have selective hearing, because you
hear just fine in some situations.”
I
hear much better when it’s dead quiet.
If I am on the phone with a woman and my hearing aid is working well and
there’s no background noise, you wouldn’t know I’m hard of hearing. If there’s background noise or I’m
talking to a man on the phone, it’s much more difficult.
3.) Deaf and hard of hearing people can’t/shouldn’t
drive or go on airplanes.
This
one cracks me up. “How can you
drive?” is, hands down, the question I get asked the most. For the life of me, I don’t know why
hearing people have this idea that D/HH people cannot drive cars. I didn’t get my license until after my
hearing loss was detected, so when it comes to driving I don’t know any
different. I’ve had a few people
point out that I glance in the rearview mirror quite frequently while I’m
driving. I suppose that’s my way
of checking for lights and sirens.
I can’t hear sirens until they’re right next to me, with or without my
hearing aids. But again, I have no
experience driving as a hearing person, so this just feels normal to me.
Flying
doesn’t feel any different either.
I’ve had hearing people ask if my aids give me trouble going through
security, and the answer is no. I
have flown twice by myself after developing hearing loss, and I’ve gone through
security without any problems. The
only thing is you have to keep your hearing aids on an acoustic channel, because
they’d probably buzz if you have them on t-coil while going through the
machines. I imagine the t-coil
channel would also buzz while you’re on the airplane, so if you use your t-coil
channel for a neck loop to listen to music, you’d have to look into a different
option. But these are all little
things. In the grand scheme of
things, deaf and hard of hearing people fly the same way as everyone else.
4.) “You can’t possibly be hard of hearing because
you don’t ‘sound deaf’.”
Whether
or not a hearing loss affects a person’s speech depends on a few factors. It depends partly on the severity of
their hearing loss. It also depends on the age of onset. A person who is born deaf or hard of
hearing is more likely to “sound deaf” because they have never heard their own
voice clearly. I didn’t start
losing my hearing until I was a teenager.
By that point I had a strong background in spoken English. A few people have asked me if the fact
that I read a ton has anything to do with how well I can speak. I honestly don’t know. But speaking clearly doesn’t mean I
always hear clearly.
5.) “You can’t take care of kids as well as a hearing
person.”
I
sure as heck can! I will
definitely need a few extra tricks when/if I become a parent, such as a
flashing or vibrating baby monitor.
But that’s not a big deal.
When I worked in toddler classrooms, if I wasn’t sure of what a toddler
was saying, I would say clearly, “Can you show me?” This usually prompted them to gesture or point at things,
and then I could figure it out from there. When/if I have my own kids, they will grow up using sign as
a second language to make communication easier.
6.) People with hearing loss can’t listen to or play
music.
Tell
that to Beethoven, haha! Or tell
that to Evelyn Glennie, a profoundly deaf percussionist! Neither of them were born deaf, which
I’m sure made music a lot easier for them. But it’s just not true that deaf and hard of hearing people
can’t enjoy or create music.
Nowadays there are numerous options for listening to music with hearing
aids and cochlear implants. I use
a neck loop, which I’ll write more about in a future post. I was very involved in music before I
started losing my hearing, and I still am. I play flute, piano, guitar, and mountain dulcimer. It’s getting more difficult to tune by
ear, so I have a tuning app on my Ipod.
I’ll readily admit that I may not hear music exactly the same way as a
hearing person, but I still hear something that I can enjoy.
7.) All deaf people use sign language.
There
are plenty of profoundly deaf people who use little to no sign. Some deaf people grew up completely
oral, and others chose to go that route as they got older.
8.) All deaf cochlear implant recipients use speech
only.
Deaf
people of all walks of life make the decision to get a cochlear implant. While it’s a popular option amongst
oral deaf people, there are some culturally Deaf people who choose it so they
have the option of being in the hearing world as well as the Deaf world. Even though they may choose to learn to
speak, they typically don’t stop signing.
Some people subscribe to the viewpoint that ASL is a good “backup” in
case the cochlear implant processor malfunctions, because CI users are
completely deaf once they take off the processor.
9.) Congenital deafness and old age are the only
causes of hearing loss.
While
those are probably the two most common causes of hearing loss, there are lots
of other causes that have nothing to do with how young or old a person is. My hearing loss was probably the result
of recurring ear infections when I was a kid. Other kinds of illness and injuries can also cause hearing
loss.
10.) People with hearing
loss can’t live “normal” lives.
Sure,
we may need some accommodations, but when our needs our met, we can do
anything! Except hear normally ;)
