When I first read an article called ‘What’s it like to be deaf?’ on a Norfolk news website I thought it might be a wind-up. But it’s not. As part of Deaf Awareness Week, an audiologist at Specsavers really did show a journalist what it would be like to be deaf by syringing some goo into her ears.
Predictably everything went very quiet, the journalist could no longer understand what people were saying around her, and as she walked out onto the street, she realised that “losing one of your senses does make you feel very vulnerable.”
She felt like her “head was submerged in a bucket of water” and said that “every noise seemed distorted.” Then, in a shock revelation from a hearing person, she went on: “It’s astonishing how much sound rules your everyday life in ways you are not even aware of,” she said, “like judging the distance of people and vehicles.”
She was startled when she didn’t realise a van had pulled up inches behind her. More so when she couldn’t hear the phone ringing in her office. “Suffering from hearing loss made my job practically impossible,” she noted.
After six hours, she took the plugs out and reflected that “I was one of the lucky ones. I was warned exactly what would happen when the audiologists made me ‘deaf for a day’ and I knew that whatever they did could also be undone.”
Well, there’s the rub. She didn’t get any idea whatsover of what it’s like to be deaf. What she got instead was an impression of what it’s like as a hearing person to suddenly not be able to hear – which is not the same thing at all.
Six hours doesn’t give you much of a chance to learn to lipread, use sign language, or more simply, how to pick out as much as you can from the sounds you do hear. You haven’t got used to walking down a street while being visually aware of what’s going on around you, or changing the way you work to fit your needs.
You haven’t discovered, in short, how deaf people get by in everyday life.
I’m not saying deaf life is easy, and of course some people do go suddenly deaf, which is a traumatic, life-changing experience. But if you block someone’s hearing for half a day, the things they report finding difficult, or different, won’t be the same as the things a person who is deaf for life would tell you.
It starts getting a tad off-putting for employers thinking of taking on a deaf person when, based on those few hours experience, you say: ” it struck me how someone with permanent hearing problems might struggle in some lines of work.” Oh yeah? Which ones exactly? Granted, some jobs are more tricky for a deaf person to do, but have you heard of Access to Work, sign language interpreters, lipspeakers, or equipment to help you hear?
I’ve heard of awareness sessions where people thought they understood blindness by covering their eyes, or what it’s like to use a wheelchair by borrowing one for a few hours. But blind people and wheelchair users I’ve met always say the same thing: unless it’s your everyday experience, you don’t really know.
I’m sure the journalist’s intentions were good. I’m sure Specsavers’ intentions were good too – there is a big issue around people not wearing hearing aids who could clearly benefit from it, and this is what they were trying to highlight. But this wasn’t the way of doing it.
As the journalist herself said: “I also only had to experience hearing loss for a mere six hours. Others have it for life, of course.”
Exactly. That’s why you should be more careful not to patronise deaf people by engaging in what, in my view, is nothing more than a meaningless gimmick.
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KidsAudiologist
March 1, 2012
Normally love all your writing Charlie but on this occassion think you’re being a bit unfair. Over the years it’s got to be one of the top questions that I get asked – usually by parents of deaf children or partners/family of older adults – what does having a hearing loss sound like? They just want to understand. It’s actually a next to impossible question to answer given that everyone is unique but there are some pretty good computer simulations available that will filter out certain frequencies, and of course you can wear earplugs or earmuffs. But overall a hearing person will never know what deafness beyond mild-moderate could possibly be like. Of course 6 hours with your ears plugged isn’t going to tell you anything about living life as a deaf person but I think the fact that the journalist has started to appreciate the limitations (even if she isn’t aware of the types of support available to overcome them day-to-day) has indeed made her think, and dare I say raised her awareness.
By far the largest group of people who have a hearing loss are elderly and have developed it due to aging. They don’t naturally learn to lip-read, they don’t use sign language, they don’t have the benefit of great peripheral vision and haven’t developed better visual awareness (and in fact their sight may be deteriorating too). Their hearing loss often happens very gradually and their brain acclimatises to not hearing a lot of things. They often become increasingly isolated as communication gets harder. I applaud Specsavers attempts to raise awareness and if more people in this group are encouraged to go for testing and fitted with hearing aids earlier then they have done well.
I for one will continue to use earplugs as a demonstration of the difficulties deaf children have. “These earplugs will give you a mild hearing loss. Now think about how well you can hear me – imagine you are in a classroom and listening to the teacher. A child with even a slight hearing loss typically cannot hear the teacher from the back of a classroom or when there is lots of background noise. Yet we expect them to learn new vocabulary and concepts daily. But we’re often told a mild hearing loss isn’t significant and a child doesn’t need support in a classroom.”
Obviously at the same time we’ll (NDCS) continue to work with everyone from schools to governments to ensure that deaf children get the support they need so that they are able to grow up into confident, capable deaf adults who are comfortable with their deafness, their identity and are aware of all the options available to support them at work such as Access to work, interpreters etc etc.
Editor
March 1, 2012
I can respect your points, Vicki but I feel many hearing people reading this article would go away with quite a sensationalised and overly negative view of what it’s like to be deaf.
The article paints a picture of vulnerability, of being completely disorientated, and while the journalist says that she only had to put up with it for six hours, she doesn’t seem aware that most deaf people don’t go around in that kind of state.
I don’t agree that it’s ‘raising awareness,’ I think it’s actually more likely to give people a misleading view of what being deaf is like. There is enough stigma around deafness without painting it in this light.
I agree with you that more people getting an idea of what it would be like to be deaf would be good – but there must be better ways of doing it than working to create articles like this. Earplugs with a mild hearing loss sound a lot better than completely shutting off someone’s hearing then asking them to draw a number of conclusions from it.
idunnocineology
March 1, 2012
It’s a shame that a lot of hearing people rely on a single sense, instead of maximizing their potential with their senses. Only if David Beckham used his eyes more instead of his ears to hear the speed of the wind during free kicks, we’d probably have a few trophies in the cabinet!
David Whittaker (@GeekWhitty)
March 1, 2012
Good response Charlie, I rolled my eyes at some of the reporter’s comments and feel exactly the way you do.
The saying “Walk a mile in my shoes.” should be replaced with “Walk in my shoes for a good while.” in this case! We will never underestimate how patronising a person can be.
Sarah Bickers
March 1, 2012
I don’t understand why someone attempting to get some idea of the difficulties deaf people face is patronising. ANYTHING that gets people to think outside their own box would surely help awareness. Perhaps you could suggest a longer trial to open up some of the issues mentioned, but it seems unfair to criticise someone for trying…
Editor
March 1, 2012
I don’t agree that ANYTHING helps awareness, sorry!
stageandsign
March 2, 2012
I think there are two terms that have been confused here; “Deaf” and “hearing loss”. To some people these are synonymous as they have little understanding of Deaf culture and sign language. I think the Specsavers experiment was trying to highlight the way hearing loss can cause vulnerability (especially in older people) and the importance of hearing tests in that demographic.
At the end of the day it’s all about language and the ignorance of terminology, for example I have seen the Metro write “wheelchair bound”; an old fashion term that wheelchair users find offensive. Perhaps the word deaf shouldn’t have been used? Or maybe the little d should have been stressed more? Or maybe the little d should have been so little that the word was eaf? I think it would have been better if they stuck to the term “hearing loss” and made their target audience clear from the start.
Julie Ryder
March 2, 2012
It’s impossible for 1 simulation to cover all aspects of deafness and to represent how all deaf people feel about their deafness. Acquired hearing loss is 1 aspect of deafness and this simulated that. You summed it up: What she got instead was an impression of what it’s like as a hearing person to suddenly not be able to hear – which is not the same thing at all. For me it represented exactly what I felt like being newly deaf but now as an ‘experienced’ deaf person (20 yrs) it’s totally not how I feel. Perhaps a better story would have been to ask the journalist to do the simulation with another ‘long time’ deaf person and then their experiences could have been compared to highlight how people successfully adapt to their situation.
Derek Trayler
March 2, 2012
I think this is like Journalists who manage on £50 for a week or live on the streets for a weekend knowing that afterwards they can go home for warm bath and a hot meal.
However the earplug test is exactly what I experienced on going deaf suddenly.
Derek
DH
March 2, 2012
That’s true. There’s a big difference between a casual few hours of non-hearing and the huge adjustments needed when becoming suddenly deaf. And there’s a big difference between being born deaf and becoming suddenly deaf in later life. It’s almost impossible to understand what being hearing, deaf or Deaf is really like unless you are in that situation. As long as it is not assumed that a casual dip of the toes makes you an authority on what the other person is experiencing, then I think that it’s helpful when someone tries to understand the other side of things, even in a limited way.
I was born hearing but three years ago I became suddenly deaf. The adjustment is still ongoing. I know what it’s like to be hearing. I know what it’s like to become suddenly deaf. But I don’t know what it’s like to be a part of the Deaf culture. Not being born deaf leaves me on the outside looking in for both the hearing and the Deaf worlds. Now that I am deaf, I have a little more insight on some things. But I’m still rather clueless on most things 🙂
Paul Redfern
March 2, 2012
Another thought – they could have asked the journalist to visit a local audiology department where they shout our names unintelligibly, treat you with appalling rudeness, and generally make you feel awful.