Just the other day, I got an email from a friend and fellow Architect who asked me to write more about the needs of folks with hearing loss. Turns out she now has moderate hearing loss and gets great benefit from hearing aids. Unfortunately, she still struggles in meetings and other group settings. I wrote her back to say “ I feel your pain”. I have found my hearing loss to be harder to accommodate than my mobility and size differences.

I recently joined a new committee for the City of Seattle. When I was preparing to attend the first meeting, I asked about my usual list of accommodations: Is there accessible parking at the location? Is the meeting in an accessible location? After I got assurances, I headed out, feeling prepared. I walked in, settled myself at my appointed seating location and shortly after the meeting started, realized that I had missed the most important item on the list: I never mentioned I was severely hard of hearing. I couldn’t hear over 50% of the meeting. Our Mayor spoke to us and I heard maybe a few words. I caught the loudest of the speakers but some folks just speak softly or at a pitch I can’t hear.  This was a big goof on my part!

I have lived with being a wheelchair user since elementary school. I have driven with hand controls since I was 16 and in an adapted vehicle since my first car in my college years. I have adjusted to sniffing out van accessible parking spaces and become an expert on traveling with manual wheelchair. I have even ventured across country with my clunky scooter (not my most comfy ride, unfortunately.) I think of myself as very well organized as a person with disability. But this hearing loss thing – that has me stumped. I keep forgetting that I really need accommodations in this area.

So, if I, of all people, forget, I can imagine there are many, many, many folks who are also not used to asking for or getting accommodations for their waning hearing. They may not have any other obvious disability. Like me, they may, but if hearing loss is relatively new to them, they just aren’t practiced at it. They may be sitting in meetings or lectures or events right now, not being able to fully hear the proceedings and too embarrassed to mention it.

What are ways to solve my problem and that of others in the same boat? The most commonly assumed accommodation for hearing loss is American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation.  Most of us hard of hearing folks don’t sign. We need other accommodations, such as CART transcription or Typewell. Amplification works if everyone speaks into a microphone, otherwise we lose the side conversations.  Of course, the best strategy is always to ask the person who has the hearing loss about what works for them!

For now, I just need to remind myself again and again – I am a person with hearing loss and I need help to hear!