#only queue

Hi 😊

A Deaf person who uses HAs and spoken language is still deaf! I’ve lived most of my life in this bracket, and am only now finding out what it’s like to be a deaf person who doesn’t wear hearing aids. 

The use of an aid like a HA or CI doesn’t automatically remove the deaf part of a person’s identity, it just means that their experience with deafness might be different to someone else’s. For example, I’ve noticed that, since no longer wearing hearing aids, conversations sometimes go like this: 

Me: please could you look at me directly and stay on my left side? I’m deaf

Them: Oh, sorry! Of course! [pause] do you... have hearing aids?

Me, slowly, knowing what’s coming: Not with me, no

Them: Wouldn’t they make this easier?

Me: Not for me

(as happened at a recent group meet I attended for local editors)

I know I could just say that I don’t use HAs, but that almost always leads to questions like “But why not?!” and then the conversation goes in circles. It just doesn’t occur to most hearing people that HAs aren’t ~magical fixes~ for everyone. I use them like tools in that they only come out for specific jobs, and spend the rest of the time shut away in a box. Others might use them every day from dawn to dusk, or only for school/college/uni/work and take them out at home. 

When I did wear hearing aids, my interactions with new people tended to go like this: 

[shopping for a new phone]

Attendant: *comes over to where I’m browsing, sees my HAs*

Attendant: [turns to dad instead of me] How can I help you today?

Because, y’know, apparently deaf people can’t speak for themselves. 

I think that the general animosity towards hearing aids and implants from Deaf people can give the sense that these devices somehow negate deafness, but it’s more nuanced than that. There are some mouldy penises people in the Deaf community who act as gatekeepers to anyone using cochlear implants and, while I haven’t heard so much about this re: HA users, that’s not to say it doesn’t happen. But on the whole, the issue with HAs/CIs is less about the devices themselves, and more about abled society using them as “fixes” for deafness. So long as you avoid this in your writing and take into account different deaf experiences, you’ll be fine.

You can also check out my [hearing aids] tag for more on what they’re like to use and related issues :)