You ain't hear to judge.

Let's just address the elephant in the room and the fact I did slip in a pun to break things up a bit. But it has backfired, let's be quite honest. It was a one off and it won't be happening again. You gotta do what you gotta do.

I had to beg on my hands and knees to get my brother to do a hipster take on a hearing aid poster! There are perks of having a sibling who does Product Design at Uni!
I bribed him through fluttering my eyes and said I would photo cred this shit! So go give him a cheeky follow on @oscar_wimpenny_design for more designs and for his personal account follow @harry_wimpenny on Instagram. It'll make his day and for me, it'll mean I'll still have a house to come back to!

Plus when searching for pictures to put in this post, I noticed that all the images showing a hearing aid were v healthcare modules and didn't have any modern twist!

Anyway, what made me decide to chat about this topic was I started to noticed a significant increase in awareness to hard of hearing has come to light in national press. Now, I know being deaf, hard of hearing whatever ya like to call it is a growing struggle for loads of people. Cheers to music being played loud in clubs, on the phone chatting shit too much and the excessive use of headphones has meant that it's one up to our generation where hearing has been our failing. Loss of hearing can stem from old age and if you have a condition, whether hereditary or not. I've been deaf since I stepped onto this Earth but did not get hearing aids till the tender age of 3 and my god, I took to them like a duck to water. Plus it saved me slapping my mum and dad round the cheeks when I wanted attention, literally. I am addicted to my hearing aids. I'm a nosey cow, always have been so to be able to actually hear brings me to life. Apparently, when I first got them put in my ears at the appointment before they were going to adjust the sound quality so I didn't feel like I was drowning underwater, I wouldn't let any of the staff in the hearing department touch me once they were turned on. I was just so buzzing to hear on my own, all the sounds I missed for 3 years had all come to me. And since then, I've got more deaf and got better hearing aids because of it. You win some, you lose some.

If ya know me well, you know when I ain't got my hearing aids in. I make it quite clear. You'll here my mum shout 'your being a little shit, put your hearing aids in' translating to your a moody fucker and need to put ya hearing aids in before I get my head kicked in from you gunning for me. You do you. I rarely have my hearing aids out, for shower purposes and sleep time.

Cheers Pinterest!

I love my hearing aids but to this day, at 23 years of age, I am still in denial about them.

I hate telling people I am deaf or if I am wearing hearing aids. I never have my hair up unless I'm forced to via work commitments or when I'm warmer than Satan's pit in the summer (the rare sight sun hits the UK, shut the front door!). I lip read 24/7 which means I can get away if I end up forgetting my hearing aid batteries and end up having to rely on what is left of my natural hearing, I will lip read to try and keep things as normal as poss. Even if I am struggling, I will make do. But that is the thing, I am in denial because in 2019, people still judge ya. Your out of the woods if ya hitting age 75+ and deaf, it's part of the cause of old age but Christ if ya any younger, you potentially will be lynched and have to bat off certain individuals who feel obliged to make ya feel like shit for wearing something which will enable you to communicate effectively and not hinder your progress as an average human. To this day, I still question where people get these beliefs and ideas to judge someone based on their appearance. Cheers to social media. For placing assumptions in people's heads and judging solely on a simple sentence of 'I am deaf do ya mind not muttering, whispering or covering ya mouth, cheers'. Ah well, they are probably the ones with v low self esteem and like to drag other's down to make them feel better about themselves. Well classy. Absolute drainers.

Another Pinterest gem!

But it brings me onto the point of this whole post that there has been a development in creating a safe space and to make being deaf the norm. Baby steps but least it is something. The recent advert released by ALDI showed a deaf girl completely signing with her family, aimed to raise awareness and promote the everyday challenges caused by deafness and hearing loss. It is proper heart-warming and makes you feel at ease. Christ it is about time considering one in six people in the UK suffer from hearing loss. It is a norm but people still do not treat it as a norm. Like I said in my previous post, you are not defined by your condition, you are an average person living with a condition on the side, you ain't the definition of being deaf, it is just a hindrance and can be a bit of a drainer from time to time. And from all of this, you have got to think, would ya really want to be friends with someone who puts ya down, judges you, makes you feel shit all because of a minuet detail that you may have to sign or you wear hearings aids, or god forbid you do both. I have my reasons for not signing which I may do another post on but props to those who do, do it. It takes enormous energy to sign or lip read, it's an added pressure to try and keep up. You should give yourself a break and people should start to realise that it is one extra thing you have to think about before you speak or listen in order to break the barrier of communication.

Another thing I noticed was adverts being broadcasted on the radio to do with being hard of hearing. An advert who gets a load of children to sing 'head, shoulder, knees and toes' but when it comes to the sentence 'and eyes, and ears, and mouth and nose', the children purposely do not sing the ears part of the song. The general jist of the advert is trying to encourage people to go out and get their hearing tested before shit hits the fan. It was interesting to hear (pardon the pun!) that companies are trying to be inclusive to all disabilities and that it can hit anyone at anytime. Just because you aren't deaf or losing your eyesight at the moment, does not mean you shouldn't go and have it checked out. You'd much rather get it checked out once over with the docs and be able to monitor it at a stable level rather than getting kicked in the teeth when you have to suddenly start wearing hearing aids or wearing glasses because it has got to the point where it is the blind leading the deaf. Classic combo.

This was a topic that has played on my mind recently and made me query a lot of thoughts on how deaf people are perceived. I hope this post has spread a bit of awareness and insight into something which really isn't scary or need to be judged. Also for a little personal gain into practising what I preach for once.

Pinterest gone hipster!

Speak soon,

Love,

T

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