The Hearing-Loss Guide by John M. Burkey

Author:John M. Burkey [Burkey, John M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2014-04-09T04:00:00+00:00

7

A Wish List

For as long as she could remember Mary Joseph had hearing loss. Whether it developed in early childhood or was from birth she couldn’t say. The loss had been found during a hearing screening while she was in kindergarten, and she had worn hearing aids ever since. Living with the hearing loss and hearing aids seemed perfectly normal. It was all she had ever known. This is not to say that Mary wouldn’t like for some things to have been different. She wished that children had not made fun of her when she was in school. She wished her family members were more understanding and did not blame her when she misunderstood things. She wished regulations that made places accessible for the disabled included a requirement for better acoustic designs and more accessories to help with hearing loss.

We all have wishes, and those suffering hearing loss are not any different. A person might wish to eliminate his or her hearing loss. Another may hope that hearing aids can always help. Like Mary Joseph, many yearn for support and understanding from family, friends, and society. Wish, hope, and yearn are the key words here, because what these people want may be difficult to achieve, unavailable, or financially out of reach.

Nevertheless, these wishes are important because they show the hearing-related aspirations of those who are affected. They form a list of things needing to be improved, changed, or developed. The patients surveyed wished for societal and individual changes, for alterations to hearing care and hearing aids, that they had done some things differently, and for a variety of hearing-related breakthroughs. Each of these desires will be examined in turn.

Wished-for Societal and Individual Changes

Societal Reactions to Hearing Loss

Asking how society treats a particular problem such as hearing loss can be misleading, in that the question implies a collective response. Everyone with hearing loss is either treated well or treated as a second-class citizen. Rather than working as a unified whole, however, society often acts more like a schizophrenic centipede, with some or all of the legs pulling in different directions. This indirection results in a range of reactions to hearing loss and, as a result, mixed views of what does or does not need to be changed. Earlier comments showed that the mix of societal views about hearing loss leaned negative. This negative tilt provided many opportunities for individuals to wish for some positive societal change.

“More acceptance from others.”

“More accepting of the problem and more tolerant.”

“I don’t want my hearing loss to ever be brought up to me.”

“Just be willing to recognize it and accept people the way they are.”

“What’s wrong with it now?”

“Be more understanding. We didn’t ask for hearing loss.”

“It doesn’t bother me.”

“Less joking about it. More realistic expectations.”

“Be more considerate of this disability.”

“Other people have a tendency to not care about what they themselves take for granted!”

“Maybe not to associate it with old age. Ads on TV/media often portray the elderly with hearing aids.”

“I wish they would realize

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