just wanted to say thank you for adding what u did to that deaf post about cochlear implants. I'd never quite understood the whole argument around them cause i thought they just made it so one could hear the same as a hearing person. now they just sound fuckin awful. particularly the culture surrounding them.
I sometimes feel awkward talking to the issue of CI’s, because I am solidly HoH, I have near complete loss at the common male registers for conversations, and partial loss for the higher female registers. BUT I am able to hear most wind and reed music. I can hear sirens, alarms, doorbells, and phone ringers on certain tones. That’s a huge benefit in a world that is pretty awful at adapting those things without someone arguing long and hard for it.
However, I also know for a LOT of Hearing folks- they think the hearing aids just- make us able to Hear- just like them. Your sending this, means I helped just one person understand that, and that’s AWESOME.
Without mine, I have to strain and struggle to hear most conversations directed at me face to face at high pitch and volume and with clear enunciation, and miss more than half of the words anyways. With them, I miss 5-30% of what is directed at me face to face, and have to struggle and strain, unless the person talking to me is the ONLY sound in the room. AND if there is anyone else talking, or other noises, I pick up those cross conversations, often having trouble distinguishing who said what, and I am in a constant state of high arousal and near panic. I can’t tell what is for me, and what is not. I strain to decipher if something was garbled, or what is going on.
At the end of the day, I am exhausted and want to cry, if I have been wearing my hearing aids. If I have not- I am still exhausted from straining most of the day- but people that know me, know to write shit down. Know to give me time and check in with me that I got something. I feel less like curling up in a ball because there is less second guessing despite having heard less.
When I have my hearing aids in- even having explained this to them- they tend to get frustrated. As much at the tech as at me, but the fact remains.
If there is one thing I could explain to people- it’s that while Hearing Aids DO allow some level of returned hearing to a HoH person, and CI’s allow SOME hearing to a born deaf person….
It’s not anywhere NEAR what the born hearing person has with well maintained hearing.
The best hearing aids on the market, for someone with moderate to severe low range hearing loss (Most conversation happens in a VERY narrow band of hearing)
it can often sound like the parents from Charlie Brown
Think of Hearing Aids as having a REALLY bad cellphone connection in a windy tunnel. Then imagine everyone expecting you to catch every word they say- because you HAVE a cellphone WITH signal!
I hope- this can help other hearing folks understand that a bit clearer.
Yes- hearing folks can reblog this, and YES dear Deaf, deaf and HoH folks, please do add on your own takes and stories to this.
