My name is Steve and I have a hearing loss

Something unusual happened in the office last week: I had a conversation with several people about my hearing problems and the aids that I wear.

I’ve never been one to hide my hearing aids, they are there for everyone to see, but I’ve never really talked about them with anyone. Possibly people just weren’t interested or they felt they couldn’t mention them.

Anyway, last week, we were talking about CSI – one of the episodes in which Grissom is suffering from a hearing problem. We looked Grissom up on Wikipedia and found out that he suffered from otosclerosis and someone asked me if that was what I had. I told them about my sensorineural loss and a bit about the problems I have with background noise and localisation and so on.

And the cool thing was: everyone was really interested – it was like they’d been itching to ask but hadn’t dared or found the opportunity to do so.

And now I feel more relaxed about not hearing someone in the office or asking them to repeat themselves. Now that I’ve actually spoken to people I know for sure that they are aware of my problem and they know what’s up if I seem to be ignoring them, talking over them or misunderstanding them. As I’ve already said, I never hide my hearing aids and I rarely have a problem with asking people to repeat themselves but knowing for sure that other people know has made the situation a whole lot easier to deal with.

How do you let other people know about your hearing problem? Do you hide it? Wait for them to notice your aids or do you let it be know as soon as possible?

Related posts:

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  3. Dave Grohl talks about his hearing loss
  4. Getting that look… you know the one?

6 comments
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  1. kim on May 16th 2008 at 7:52 am :

    Hi Steve,
    I have to agree that it’s so much better once people know about your hearing. I don’t hide my hearing aids, but my hair covers them. I have short hair too, but it’s thick and since I’m a women it would look odd if I cut it even shorter than it is. So I don’t purposely hide my aids, but people don’t normally notice them. I’ve learned it’s best to out myself right away when meeting new people. I don’t say, “Hi I’m Kim and I can’t hear.” But usually I’ll tell them, “Oh by the way, I’m deaf and I need you to look at me when you speak.” Most people thank me for letting them know. The good thing about telling them right up front like that is they know I’m comfortable talking about it. I think most people are very curious about how or why someone can’t hear, but they don’t want to ask for fear we might be embarrassed.

  2. Shi-Ku Chishiki on November 6th 2008 at 8:20 pm :

    The questions that were asked were: “How do you let other people know about your hearing problem? Do you hide it? Wait for them to notice your aids or do you let it be know as soon as possible?”

    Most everyone that knows me knows I have a hearing problem, well that is up until I got my BTE HA’s. Since recently getting my HA’s do I try to hide from strangers that I’m wearing HA’s? It’s NOT that I’m ashamed to, but NO.. I just don’t go around advertising it either. When and if a situation might happen then I might say: “Yeah, I’m new to the HA situation. It takes a little bit getting use to”, and then let them take it from there.. in whichever direction they want to go.

    Shi-Ku Chishiki ShiKu.Chishiki@Gmail.com

  3. Silent Red Wolf on February 13th 2009 at 10:01 pm :

    I don’t have hearing problem, am just Deaf and been born that way. I never experience hearing except hearing aid. Don’t know if sound are the same as normal and hearing aid? I guess God gave me Deaf and test hearing people to see if they accept me who I am or not. Not my problem, its hearing people’s problem.

  4. Susan on June 13th 2009 at 11:41 pm :

    I read your article on how purchasing a hearing aid could be improved if we could only sample a sofstware program on a a disposable hearing aid. I am currently in the process of purchasing my first digital aids. I have a moderately severe snsorineural hearing loss and have been wearing analogs for 50 years now. I teach fourth grade and it is hard to tell what is being said since my analogs don’t pick up high frequency sounds very well. I am shopping around since $5,000 dollars is a huge investment. I understand that new aids can be hard to get used to and I’m prepared for that, but when I mentioned that sometimes it sounds like voices talking into a fan my current vendor told me I would get used to that. I think not. I am shopping around. It was helpful to know I’m not the only one with this frustration. Thanks for your website

  5. Liz on November 13th 2009 at 10:30 pm :

    I’m open to talk about it. But to start me off usually has to be the person that’s asking. I can then carry on and talk as long as they are interested. After getting used to and accepting my hearing aids which was around 6 months. I’ve never felt like I needed to hide them. I have my hair how I felt.

  6. Hearing Test on July 14th 2010 at 4:36 am :

    Very courageous. I run a website where people would love to hear your story of sharing and openness. I will let the readers of my blog know about this great forum and the content that they can access here.

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