I’ve had a severe hearing loss since birth and grew up dependent on lipreading and hearing aids. I’ve witnessed profound change in technology, from the large primitive hearing aid I had as a child, to digital and assistive listening technologies and the availability of cochlear implants. I’ve painfully navigated my way through public schools, and later at jobs, with an invisible disability. Today I am grateful for connectivity to the phone, captioning for movies and Zoom which enables me to lipread! I finally found my way to a life of creativity as a painter and writer.
I wrote...
But You Look So Normal: Lost and Found in a Hearing World
At age four, I still hadn’t uttered a word. Finally, I was diagnosed with a severe hearing loss and given a primitive hearing aid. It was the early 1950s, long before the availability of the sophisticated digital hearing aids and technology of today. I worked hard to learn to hear, lipread, and speak, even as I tried to hide my disability in order to fit in. As a result, I was often misunderstood, lonely, and isolated—fitting into neither the hearing world nor the Deaf culture.
My memoir is the story of a life affected but not defined by an invisible disability. It is a journey through family, loss, shame, identity, love, and healing as I finally, joyfully, find my place in the world.
This book has become a kind of Bible for those with hearing loss, certainly it has for me. Both authors share their own personal experiences with hearing loss, but this book is primarily a wonderful handbook for self-advocacy.
It is chock full of valuable information about how to navigate the hearing loss world; from the latest hearing technology to how to communicate more effectively in the world. I learned new things that I’ve now applied to my life.
I love movies, but unless they are foreign films with subtitles, I’ve always struggled to understand what is being said. But I discovered there are captioning devices that will download in real time what is being said. Just recently, I watched Barbie with a captioning device that fit into my seat’s cup holder. To my delight, I was able to glance down periodically and read all the dialogue.
This is just one of many valuable tips I learned that have made a difference in my life.
Hearing loss doesn't come with an operating manual-until now.
If you have hearing loss, you already know that the conventional approach to treatment is focused on hearing-aid technology. What's missing from this hearing care model is the big picture-a real-life illustration of how hearing loss, its emotions, and its barriers affect every corner of your life.
Now, hearing-health advocates, consultants, and speakers Shari Eberts and Gael Hannan offer a new skills-based approach to hearing loss that is centered not on hearing better, but on communicating better.
With honesty and humor, they share their own hearing loss journeys, and outline invaluable…
I was so engrossed by this poignant memoir that I inhaled it one day. Hay describes how he lost all his hearing in his 20s due to a rare disease that causes tumors that required removal over many surgeries with major side effects and long and difficult rehabs. Honestly, I don’t know how he achieved all that he did while juggling a demanding job and three children.
Delightfully woven throughout his account is a tale of his musical journey as he is determined to commit to memory the lyrics of his favorite songs while going deaf. I had fun learning about the music that informed his generation. I was also moved by the love between him and his devoted wife, Nora, who unfailingly stood beside him every step of the way.
It is a poignant account of bravery and resilience as he works hard to live a life as normal as possible. I was inspired by his testament to the power of human courage and love.
As a child, Matt Hay didn't know his hearing wasn't the way everyone else processed sound - and like a lot of kids who do workarounds to fit in, even the school nurse didn't catch his condition at the annual hearing and vision checks. But as a prospective college student who couldn't pass the entrance requirements for West Point, Hay's condition, generated by a tumour, was unavoidable: his hearing was going, and fast.
Soundtrack of Silence was his determined compensation for his condition: a typical Midwestern kid growing up in the 1980s, whose life events were pegged to pop music,…
In 1986 I sobbed the whole way through the filmChildren of a Lesser Godstarring Marlee Matlin and William Hurt, about the doomed romance between a hearing teacher at a school for the Deaf and a young deaf woman who works as a janitor. So, when her autobiography came out in 2010, I just gobbled it up.
It is a soul-baring account of her life, starting with the total loss of her hearing at 18 months, her sexual abuse, addictions, and her various fraught romances. She is now a celebrated award-winning actress, an advocate for the Deaf community, and is actively involved in various charitable organizations.
I am amazed at how much she has accomplished, given her deafness and all that she has gone through. It gave me an important glimpse into a celebrity’s Deaf experience.
Audiences everywhere fell in love with Marlee Matlin as the deaf student-turned-custodian in Children of a Lesser God, a role for which she became the youngest woman ever to win a Best Actress Oscar. Since then, she has become an inspirational force of nature - as a mother, activist and role model - in addition to playing memorable roles on popular television shows, such as Seinfeld, The West Wingand The L Word, and competing on Dancing with the Stars.Now, in I'll Scream Later, Marlee shares the story of her life.
Marlee takes readers on a journey of her life, from…
Holston, a journalist and musician, went to bed one night and woke up the next morning virtually completely deaf.
His book is a fascinating account of how he clawed his way back to the hearing world through various misdiagnoses, a failed cochlear implant, and finally, after extensive rehabilitative therapy, a successful cochlear implant. I learned so much about the pros and cons and risks of cochlear implants, and how they have improved greatly over the years.
I loved the way he communicates his profound frustrations and fears through this painful process with a self-deprecating humor that makes the book, despite its serious subject matter, an entertaining as well as educational read.
From a renowned media critic to a man with sudden and full hearing loss, Noel Holston ran the gauntlet of diagnoses, health insurance, and cochlear implant surgery. On a spring night in 2010, Noel Holston, a journalist, songwriter, and storyteller, went to bed with reasonably intact hearing. By dawn, it was gone, thus beginning a long process of h
Bouton skillfully weaves her personal story of suddenly losing her hearing at age 35 with information about modern hearing technology. I so relate to her account of having to adjust to living with an invisible disability, the impact that her hearing loss had on her career, and the process she went through, from denial, depression, and finally to acceptance. I appreciate how transparent and genuine she is in her disclosure of how painful and difficult hearing loss can be.
I’ve given this book to family members and friends, for it has many fabulous tips about how to assist those with hearing loss: speak as normally and articulately as possible, rephrase when the person says “what”, turn off the TV and background music, and certainly, don’t whisper in their ear. And, shouting won’t help!
Audiologists agree that we're experiencing a national epidemic of hearing loss. At present, 48 million Americans―17 percent of the population―suffer some degree of loss. More than half are under the age of fifty-five. In cases like Katherine Bouton's, who experienced sudden hearing loss at the age of thirty, the cause is unknown.
In this deftly written and deeply felt look at a widespread and widely misunderstood phenomenon, Bouton recounts her own journey into deafness―and her return to the hearing world through the miracles of technology. She speaks with doctors, audiologists, neurobiologists, and others searching for causes and a cure, as…
The Unproposed Guy is a captivating journey through the life of Kevin, a character stuck in a mundane existence and unfulfilling relationships, who discovers his passion for stand-up comedy and rapping amidst an existential crisis.
This contemporary fiction is peppered with humor, sarcasm, and poignant insights into modern relationships and societal expectations. Kevin's struggles and transformations offer a unique blend of comedy and emotional depth, making it a must-read for those seeking a fresh, humorous perspective on love, life, and self-discovery. Dive into Kevin's character of failed relationship and who portrays himself as "Every guy's best friend and every girl's worst nightmare".
There has been no significant change in the life of Kevin—a monotonous routine, ordinary family, and miserably failing relationships—until he finds out he is going through something abnormal: 'Existential Crisis'.
He has always been a marvellous entertainer, but has a mysterious way of putting off girls. The talent in him is growing creatively, and abundantly, but his inability to impress a girl keeps pulling him down slowly. He realises he can be any guy’s best friend, but he also seems to be every girl’s worst nightmare.
Hop onto the rollercoaster journey of Kevin’s life, as he navigates through mocking friends…
