Common barriers for people with hearing loss - and how to overcome them
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When people lose their hearing, they have access to medical support and technology such as hearing aids and sound streamers to help amplify the sound around them.
However, hearing aids don’t always fix things perfectly. And in their social life, work life, and when accessing services, people with hearing loss come across a wide range of barriers.
Here’s a few of them.
Lack of Awareness.
People don’t always understand the impact of hearing loss, assuming it’s not that bad or that hearing aids fully restore hearing. There’s also a popular assumption that hearing loss affects speech, so if you don’t ‘sound deaf’, you can’t be deaf. However, if you heard and learned speech as a child and lost your hearing later, it won’t change how you speak. (it’s not something you forget)
These misconceptions create lack of empathy where others don’t recognise how inaccessible environments or communication styles affect those with hearing loss. They think people exaggerate their hearing loss or accuse them of selective hearing.
How to make a change
If you know someone with hearing loss, take some time to find out their communication preferences, which environments are challenging for them and how you can make listening easier. Simple things like reducing background noise or enabling captions on Teams or Zoom calls can make a huge difference.
Get your workplace to organise a deaf awareness course for staff. Even if you don’t have any deaf employees at the moment, you may have clients or customers that would benefit if you make your business more inclusive.
Communication Challenges
Deaf people and those with hearing loss use different methods to communicate. Many use a combination of their residual hearing, following lip patterns and body language. Others use sign language or a combination of everything.
Different environments bring up different challenges. Background noise and echoes mean important parts of words can be missed. People looking away when they speak means that lip patterns are missed.
In a group setting with a fast moving discussion, someone with hearing loss can miss a topic change or part of a joke, so they feel left out and can’t partipate.
How to make a change
Find a more suitable environment for group discussions and make sure everyone can be seen. Get the person’s attention before you start talking to them. If important information is being shared, summarise it afterwards to make sure nothing is missed. Ask the person how to make communication easier for them.
If someone has a BSL interpreter with them, direct your questions to the deaf person, not the interpreter. Speak normally, but get to the point and try not to waffle. Allow the interpreter to finish signing before moving on to the next topic. This allows the person to ask any questions and add their own ideas to the discussion.
Stigma and Bias
There is a false idea that people who are deaf or have hearing loss are somehow less capable than hearing people. Spoken communication is highly valued in our society and those who struggle to follow speech or use other forms of communication are often considered less intelligent.
For many people, the first person with hearing loss they know of may be an elderly relative, possibly with other health conditions or memory problems. So their idea of someone with hearing loss is an elderly and confused person relying on others for everything.
These false ideas can lead to people being discriminated against at work or when applying for jobs. It can also lead to them being ignored - questions are directed at their spouse (or their children) as if they are the carer.
This can also make people reluctant to get help for their own hearing problems.
How to make a change
Never assume someones intelligence or capabilities based on how they communicate. Challenge abelist comments and opinions and don’t laugh at jokes that put others down.
Support deaf led businesses and deaf role models by following them on social media and sharing their successes. Help to normalise being deaf and successful.
Lack of Accessibility
Insurance companies that insist you phone for a quote.
Dr’s surgeries and hospitals that mumble your name on the other side of the room so you miss your appointment.
Banks without hearing loops that work.
A film you’ve been waiting to watch with your family at the cinema but captions are only available at 10am on a Wednesday.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
Often the people in charge don’t know how to implement accommodations - or understand why they need to. Leaving the customer facing staff to deal with the fallout.
How to make a change
Give your staff the knowledge and technology they need to support deaf and hard of hearing customers. If a customer tells you your hearing loop isn’t working, don’t argue with them - they’re the expert!
Make sure everyone knows how to use tech such as hearing loops and to troubleshoot if its not working.
Give your customers more than one way of contacting you such as text or email. Don’t rely on phone calls. Use a video interpreter service such as sign live. Better still - get your staff to learn sign language.
Emotional Barriers
Hearing loss can be difficult to come to terms with. And if you’re struggling, it makes it harder to talk about, especially if people are dismissive or rude.
You just want to be able to join in again and be involved instead of every interaction being difficult.
Sometimes people internalise the stigma of hearing loss, creating self doubt and making them question if their needs are really valid or important enough. They may worry that others will get annoyed with them if they try to advocate for themselves.
How to make a change
Check in on friends and work colleagues with hearing loss to see how they’re doing. Find out if there are any ways you can support them. Give them the oppourtunity to feel seen and heard.
Advocating for yourself doesn’t mean arguing or being pushy, it’s enabling clear communication, and that can benefit everyone.
If your hearing loss is getting you down, reach out to someone for support.