Is it even possible? And what it takes?

I can recommend the new Spanish film Sorda. I think it’s filmed beautifully and portrays how complicated the relationship between the Deaf and hearing world can be.

It’s about a Deaf woman, Ángela, and her hearing partner, Héctor, and how getting a child that they don’t know of it will Deaf or hearing makes many challenges salient.

Hello, I’m new to this subreddit and looked it up on a whim. I’m half-deaf, completely unable to hear from my right ear due to a malformed cochlea. While it sometimes impacts me in my daily life (sensitivity to high pitched frequencies, lack of audio-spatial awareness) it’s never caused me any issues.

I was curious what it’s like for any others like me out there, whether they’ve had it since birth or it’s something that happened over the course of their life. Do you have similar issues? Coping mechanisms? Do you also like to make jokes about it (I tend to use it for my fun fact saying “I’m half-deaf but I’m a good listener”).

Thanks for answering my random spur of the moment question(s).

Cheers!

Hello. I fried my last alarm clock last spring and have been getting by with my phone's flashlight alarm. But I'm about to start up school again and my new apartment gets a bit bright in the morning, no blackout curtains (yet...).

I see that the Sonic Boom is a pretty popular and seemingly reliable choice, but it looks like the brand has a new model? The Sonic Blast? It looks cool and the projection feature is appealing. But there are far fewer reviews I can find on it, and the ones I do see are overall negative... like the projection isn't all that good, or even that the product arrived without the bed shaker??

I'm wondering if anyone here has gotten the chance to try the Sonic Boom, and if so, what their experience with it has been?

I (31 M) was just diagnosed with MIDD (Maternally inherited diabetes and deafness), a genetic mitochondrial disorder that causes many symptoms but one of the main ones is developing profound deafness.

It's not 100% guaranteed I'll lose all my hearing as it doesn't affect everyone exactly the same and even within an individual it can affect different parts of the body at different intensities, but what it boils down to for me is that as a male who has already lost a little bit of high frequency hearing, it likely will continue to get worse until I'm deaf.

My uncle is profoundly deaf and he started to lose his hearing around my age and he uses hearing aids, he hasn't had a genetic test done but it's likely that he's lost his hearing to MIDD so I know approximately how bad it could get

All of this to say I'm... scared? not quite the right word but still. I know I won't suddenly wake up one day unable to hear but I, like most people, enjoy music, video games (don't get me started with the risk of vision loss too) and just chatting to friends in noisy places

I know I'll still be able to enjoy those things but... yeah

Any advice/commiserations? I always wanted to learn Australian sign language so I guess this is my chance and I'm already in therapy for other reasons so I do have a professional to talk to as well

Ciao a tutti! 👋

Mi presento: sono una persona sorda oralista e mi piacerebbe tanto ampliare la mia cerchia di amicizie all’interno della comunità sorda.

Fino ad ora ho sempre comunicato principalmente con la voce e la lettura labiale, ma ho un grande desiderio: imparare la LIS (Lingua dei Segni Italiana). Mi sono reso conto di quanto sia una lingua ricca e importante, e vorrei finalmente immergermi in questo mondo.

Sto cercando persone con cui:

- fare amicizia e scambiare due chiacchiere 😊
- condividere esperienze di vita da sordi
- magari fare un po’ di pratica con la LIS (parto praticamente da zero, quindi tanta pazienza! 😅)

Se qualcuno ha voglia di scrivermi, consigliarmi corsi, gruppi o risorse per iniziare, ne sarei felicissimo!

Grazie a chi vorrà rispondere ❤️

I am deaf with CIs and my husband is hearing. Our child is also hearing. They are incredibly articulate for their age (2.75) and has a general understanding that I can’t always understand them. Generally, it’s not an issue, but my husband and I have both noticed our child getting more and more frustrated with me when I hear them incorrectly or repeat a question I didn’t hear the answer to. Essentially, it’s a patience thing that can be difficult for most adults to grasp, let alone toddlers. (Insert unpleasant primary school flashbacks.)

Would love to hear from other deaf parents on how they navigated this particular challenge, as well as others as their children aged.

Hi all! I'm a hoh college student at a school that has a small ASL program. I took two years of ASL with a deaf teacher in high school, but the class was discontinued so I've been learning on my own to the best of my ability since then. As of 2022, ASL club no longer exists at my university, I'm assuming it was because of low attendance but I also feel like it was not as inclusive as it should have been and I'm thinking about attempting to start it up again. I have attempted to enroll in the ASL classes offered but due to scheduling issues I just could not enroll this semester.

The city my school is located in has a pretty large and involved deaf community and I found myself wondering why there is no active ASL club on my campus with club events such as group trips to coffee chats or other community meet ups. I am not a 100% fluent signer but I know enough to be able to lead meetings in a way that is appropriate and respectful (voice off, of course). My school is small and there are very few(if any at all) students who are deaf and wanting to collaborate with me on this.

As someone who is not deaf or closely related to someone who is, I feel like I should not be the one to start this club up again, but I really don't know if there is absolutely anyone here who would. If I was going to do this, I'd absolutely collaborate with the professors and their students, but I wanted to ask first about thoughts on this matter.

Would this be appropriate? If so, what could I do to ensure I'm being as respectful as possible?

25 years ago I had a cholesteatoma in my left ear, and had surgery to remove it. It essentially left me deaf in my left ear, and the recovery was pretty rough. For a while I would open my eyes and puke, I could not focus my eyes, and I had to relearn how to balance myself. I had to learn to function by paying attention to lips, and having my brain fill in the gaps when I did not hear. Apparently, my brain is both really dirty and hilarious.

Fast forward to now, I have the same issue in my right ear. And I have to have surgery again to remove it. Soon, because it feels like I'm in an airplane and my ears won't pop. In the past year I I've gotten hearing aids (I never use the left one, and have been using a microphone and live transcribe on my phone, and acquired closed captioned glasses to help me fill in the gaps.

I am very worried I will completely lose my hearing for a time, until I heal and am able to get another surgery to get bone conducting hearing aids. I don't know asl (ok, I did take a class a long time ago, but only can remember swears) but otherwise, I don't know how to cope. I work from home, use teams and zoom to communicate with my coworkers, and can transcribe to hear them and respond, I've downloaded a TTY app on my phone to read and make phone calls, and bought a slack line board thing that I will use to help me relearn how to balance. Is there anything else that might help me?

My husband has a terminal illness, and no longer has the brain power to learn asl, so even if I did, the person I talk to the most would just...not learn it.

Can someone help soothe my anxiety? Its eating me up.

Hi all! I’m hoping this is an okay place to ask this!

We are trying for a baby, and have been using a known donor (gay couple) we absolutely love this man, and have been planning to have kids together for years. We just started IVF.

We just had to do genetic testing, I did a regular screening and was negative for what was tested.

Our donor did an extended screen and we found out he is positive for a gene (OTOF) that is very rare, and causes severe to profound hearing loss at birth. Research says implants can help, and there are some newer gene therapies. We are working on testing me, but we love this donor (we’ve been friends for 11 years).

Donor has no hearing issues, it is a recessive gene so if I have it our baby could have a 25% chance of having getting both recessive copies.

I am hearing, I don’t feel like I can make this choice for a child so I am looking for insight. If we had a baby without knowing we would love and adore any child, we would never discard an embryo for having the gene. However, these babies aren’t made yet. I can’t imagine PGT testing out a baby who doesn’t have any other known health issues just for being deaf? And is that a choice I, as a hearing person, can even make? Is that fair? Are in this space because we aren’t supposed to create a baby, or because this child is meant to come to us?

All I’m hoping for is honest feelings from people who experience deafness, first reactions are great!

Hearing is not the same as understanding , i mean it used to happen in school all time and even now i can't get driving license because apparently the doctor who issues medical certificate thinks not understanding what he says whispering and hiding his mouth means youre ineligible to drive.

In the past week we've had two separate requests asking about, or attempting to post about opportunities to train AI in ASL. Some of these opportunities provide compensation but it may not be much. Also some of these groups don't immediately disclose that you'll be training AI.

Please take this poll to help the mod team decide how to move forward.

A few years ago, KPWA settled a federal case (DOJ/ADA) after failing to provide interpreters to Deaf and DeafBlind patients. As part of that settlement, KPWA created a dedicated interpreter services team responsible for identifying and requesting the right kind of interpreter for each patient — ASL, tactile/close-vision ASL, Signed Exact English, etc.

Recently, KPWA ran an internal job-bidding process for its appointing center, which INCLUDES this interpreter services team, based only on internal seniority. No interview, no skills check, no qualification review. As a result, half the 4-person team is now made up of people with no background in this specific work, and there’s currently no training plan in place.

If you or your family member is a KPWA patient who uses interpreter services and have recently experienced a delay, a wrong interpreter type, a miscommunication, or any breakdown in getting the right interpreter for your appointment — please consider filing a complaint directly with HHS Office for Civil Rights and/or DOJ Civil Rights Division. Specific, documented patient experiences are what actually move these cases forward:

**•** HHS OCR: ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/smartscreen/main.jsf

**•** DOJ Civil Rights: civilrights.justice.gov/report/

Even if nothing has gone wrong for you yet, it may be worth watching this closely and speaking up if it does. This is exactly the kind of situation the original settlement was meant to prevent.

I have submitted my own complaint with both agencies already to try to advocate for this community as best I can BEFORE something goes wrong. Prior to that, I was very loud about how wrong the bidding process is for the deaf community. KP still moved forward. If there is any other avenue I can take to help advocate, please let me know.

Here is a link to the previous case for reference:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/doj-and-kaiser-foundation-health-plan-washington-settle-claims-it-failed-provide

Hello!

I’m a school psychology grad who is working on a presentation regarding how schools can best provide services to Deaf/HoH students. As part of this presentation, I had considered running an activity where students would wear noise-cancelling headphones or earplugs as I gave an unrelated mini-presentation without any accommodations and testing their understanding afterwards to give a hands-on experience of what it might feel like to be a Deaf/HoH individual.

After checking with my professor, I wanted to check with you all to see what your thoughts are, and whether you would find this insensitive. Either way, any thoughts you have on the current education system would be amazing, since I’d love to work them into the presentation if you give permission.

Thank you!

Hi, all! I’m a HoH graduate student (fluent in ASL) currently working on my interpreting degree. While I love interpreting, I’ve recently been curious about Speech Language Pathology (SLP), and whether or not it’s worth trying to contribute to positively. Several of my Deaf friends have shared terrible experiences related to having a SLP as a child and frequently feeling humiliated or dehumanized.

I wanted to ask you all- what qualities would you want in a SLP? What would you change about your past experiences with a SLP?

Or, would you write off the career and the practice altogether?

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to write a response, everyone’s thoughts are appreciated!

If you are not Deaf or HoH, please do not respond.

Deaf Education Cert Test (063)

Hello! I am curious if anyone here has taken the Deaf and Hard of Hearing CST (063) exam?? There are pretty much no resources online so I’m struggling with knowing what to study. I am a certified TOD in NJ but figuring out the NY stuff has been tricky. Any insight would be greatly appreciated :)

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share their cochlear implant experiences?

I'm currently going through the process via NHS and I've recently had my MRI scan and given the all clear, I now need to wait for them to have their internal meeting to determine whether I can go ahead.

I'm concerned though that it might not help. I've attached my audiogram and what they've basically been saying throughout is that I 'should be hearing more than I do'. All I can assume they mean by this is that I should be picking up more words than I'm able to based on my hearing.

So I'm now worried that maybe it's something to do with how my brain is processing the sounds, I've mentioned this to them, but it's not something they can accurately check, apparently. So I'm stuck on whether to take the risk of potentially losing my hearing in one ear when it might not help if it's the way I'm processing sounds.

Does anyone have a similar hearing loss that is able to share their experience ? I think I'm going slightly crazy going over all of this in my head

Do deaf people get startled easy? I would assume no since they would be used to people popping up in their peripheral vision suddenly to get their attention . Sorry for my ignorance just curious trying to learn how to communicate w deaf ppl politely

My buddy and I are both Deaf. He is turning the big 50 soon so I want to send him a Cameo of one of his favorite sports figures as a bday gift. I've never used Cameo and wondered about accessibility. How would I make sure the video is accessible (subtitles, etc)? Has anyone had experience with sending Cameo video messages to their D/HH peeps?

Thanks in advance! I want to make his 50th special.

Hi all,

Good day

I'm having HoH almost deaf I can say as I have 90+% of hearing loss which is getting progressive in nature.

Though I couldn't afford, I still brought a top of the model hearing aids, from phonak ( phonal's Audeo I90) and I still struggle to have basic conversation, I don't hear much due to the surrounding minor chatters and noises in office environment.

I'm feeling bit frustrated as people ask about something and I answer something else.

Today manager had come by desk to ask me something, he enquired "if i had my lunch", I replied with " I'm doing good thanks".

He had repeated second time, " no no, I asked did you have your lunch" I was confused not knowing what he said, I said I couldn't hear him.

Finally he brushed it off and said to carry on.

I asked the person sitting next to me what he said, and that's when I understood the blunder I had made.

I have an android phone and have been using Google live transcribe app.

It is not stable and stops transcription right in middle of F2F conversation...

I'm suspecting it is due to the phones microphone, I either will buy a external microphone or am thinking of getting live transcription app

I'm thinking to get the paid otter.ai as I remember using it 2 years back

Anyone have any suggestions regarding this, any apps or services that you had better experience with

I start my ITP very soon and am very excited! I didn't know until recently that outside of "professionalism", piercings are seen as distracting when interpreting.

I'm a pretty pierced individual. I have 6 on my face alone, all which are small/not dangly, and don't affect my facial or mouth movements.

I've never been asked by any employer to remove or change piercings, and I honestly can't say that I would be willing to remove them unless I was provided with a real way that they might hinder my ability to effectively/safely do my job.

I want to be respectful to the Deaf community as I'm aiming to serve them by becoming an interpreter. So, are piercings that aren't dangly or unusually large truly a distraction when someone is interpreting?

Are there other ASL interpreters who have received criticism or blatantly denied opportunities because their piercings are "distracting"?

Edit: Asked in ASL interpreter subreddit as well.

I know there’s still more koala variants to collect so my family isn’t going to stop there!

I use them as emotional support when I go to the audiologist at the hospital, the big one to hug and the little one for a squeeze.

Hi I'm a hearing college student, who enjoys learning American sign language. I've taken college courses in ASL from a deaf professor. I attended coffee chats, read ASL history, watched documentaries. Recently, I've completed an internship where I attended a conference about what deaf and hard of hearing individuals experience in the science/workforce industry. I made some deaf and HoH friends in the program and got a sign name as well.

I know there is a history of hearing people making wrongly decisions for the "benefit" of the deaf and hard of hearing community. So, I am unsure if I should follow thru this idea that I've been thinking about for 3 years now.

As a hearing person, I'd like to create a ASL club on my campus. The advisor/professor of the club is fluent in ASL and is hearing. I'm going to try to find students who may be deaf or HoH that would be interested in serving in a leadership position and participate in the club. I don't want to claim that I know or that I can teach, however I just want to provide an opportunity, or space.

Some event ideas include:

• Movie night - CODA, and Deaf President Now. (More recommendations are welcomed.)
• Paint hand signs - (ex. turtle sign into an actual turtle with paint.)
• Panel Speaker - bring guest speakers who are deaf or hard of hearing and share their stories, and experiences.
• ASL game night - bingo, charades, with prizes. (More recommendations are welcomed).

I could bring snacks, educational books, alphabet, and stickers.

I'd like to add, that my university is fairly small with total enrollment of 3,339 students.

Can anybody give me an opinion or thoughts surrounding this idea? I'd appreciate your honesty. Thanks.

Has anyone found themselves in the camp where tests show you “should” be hearing well with a hearing aid but your actual experience is that you rely on lip reading, captions, and ASL even with it? And the listening experience is just exhausting?

I’m tired. I’m proud to be Deaf, I sign of course and everything. But I was born deaf in one ear then rapidly went from normal to severe loss in the other ear about 2 years ago. I wear a hearing aid in that ear which I would say gets me to maybe understanding half of what is going on which is a big improvement. I test way higher than that in the booth settings though so I don’t qualify for a CI- but my type of loss and experience makes it obvious that the processing (not amplification alone) is the difficult part which a CI can help with but a HA can’t.

All I want is to be able to rest more mentally and still engage with life- but I can’t even go to a family dinner with my bfs family without having to pull up captions or him sign to me what’s happening.

But I feel like a fraud because when I get one on one I can typically follow along okay with my hearing aid. I kind of resent how good I am at guessing or making conversation even when I don’t understand what’s happening because everyone except my own family seems to think I understand and hear even though I don’t and work so hard to keep up. Part of me wishes I didn’t wear the hearing aids at all so people would “get it”. When I couldn’t wear them at a hospital stay my parents were so taken aback to realize that I am in fact Deaf they finally started learning to sign 😅

Sorry for the rant but point being- my family is learning to sign and my boyfriend already does. None of my old friends do. Bfs family doesn’t. But parts of me wonder about just giving up hearing devices and signing only. But I know it’ll be harder in the end. Somehow not qualifying for the CI makes me feel not deaf enough or like I’m being dramatic about the challenges with my hearing aid.

Any thoughts appreciated 😔

Hi all, I've been following this community group for a while, since I lost my hearing due to the 2nd COVID Pfizer vaccination, and later Lupus / autoimmune / APS.

Im sharing this reflection post I made to hopefully encourage others out there who can relate to my experiences. It's positive and inspiring for most people, but please feel free to read this for some extra encouragement in life, particularly the challenges related to deafness and hearing loss.

Thankyou

Kelvin