Last week I came down with the typical beginning-of-the-school-year cold/flu, and like any other time that I get sick, I lost a little bit of my hearing. Usually I regain my hearing within a couple of days after recovering, however this time it was different. This year, I came down with a really bad cold, and a slight fever, and as predicted, I lost a little bit of my hearing. I dealt with it for the last week. It wasn’t until today that I noticed that things have not been improving at all over the week, in fact I didn’t notice it until this morning that I only had about 15% hearing in my right ear. I had met up with a few of my friends, and we were talking when I realized that I was only catching a few of the things my friends were saying. I noticed that I was mostly reading their body language and facial expressions. Once I asked them to repeat themselves and they looked at me as if I was a three year old. Not only was this annoying, but it terrified me. I was stuck in the middle of the hearing, and deaf worlds, and I was alone. Here are a few things that I can think of to help those who are Hard of Hearing and Deaf:
- Look at the HOH or Deaf person when you talk to them. Not only does it signal that you are talking/signing to them, but it also eliminates the confusion that can sometimes rise from glancing at someone else, or looking somewhere else.
- Make sure you have their attention. If you don’t we won’t hear you and you will feel ignored when that is not the case at all.
- If you are talking to someone who is HOH and know ASL, when they ask you to repeat what you said, sometimes it is very helpful to sign as you repeat what you were saying to get the message across.
- When we ask you to repeat yourself, speak a little louder and a little slower.
- When an interpreter is present, still maintain eye contact with the person that you are talking to, not the interpreter.
I learned these the hard way…by experiencing it myself. Please give these suggestions some thought when faced with these situations.
