Kate Tonge: Coming to terms with my deafness and setting up Semisound, my own support group (BSL)

At the start of 2023 I had hoped it was my big year. After struggling with deteriorating hearing for several years I eventually began to accept my hearing loss due to the difficulties I was experiencing in hearing and communicating with others. I can now identify as being deaf.

This realisation had taken 24 years from my original sudden hearing loss but with every step I was finding out more about myself as a person and what I needed to cope with the day-to-day challenges that were an ever present feature of my life.

To do this I sought support from my local deaf group DEAFvibe UK which is an amazing charity and community of people who have different levels of deafness and life experiences. They were able to offer advice, reassurance and friendship to me – all of which were extremely valuable when facing the struggles that deafness brings.

I made the Founder of DEAFvibe UK aware that I had regularly visited Audiology departments in the hope of more support with my hearing however this had not happened and she was able – as part of her professional role outside DEAFvibe UK – to refer me for a Cochlear Implant.

After much waiting I had an appointment for this over the summer. I was so excited but as of yet I’m not eligible because of superpowers I hadn’t realised I had.

I can lipread (that I did know) but not only can I do that, I can fill in the missing gaps of words like doing a wordle – so in listening to speech tests when I hear partial sounds I can fill in the gaps automatically, without realising – a useful skill…but not helpful when you need to try and actually represent what you can hear.

Anyway while recovering from the disappointment of not being offered the opportunity to hear more sounds – another door opened – a friend from DEAFvibe UK suggested I ask my GP to be referred to Complex Audiology.

This was amazing a hospital department I hadn’t even heard of who provided me with digital hearing aids. I absolutely love these hearing aids, they give me more definition and clarity than I had before with my old hearing aids. So I am definitely feeling more positive about following the thread when engaged in conversations.

Alongside these personal changes to my hearing my role in DEAFvibe UK has also developed; I enjoy attending our weekly signing group and my ability to Sign has come on in leaps and bounds along with my confidence and enthusiasm!

I’ve volunteered to arrange our Christmas Signed Singing fundraising this year and have discovered new skills in events planning and management.

Those day to day challenges still exist but instead of dwelling on them I’m now advocating positive strategies for them to help support others. This is part of my new Facebook group called Semisound which DEAFvibe UK helped me to set up and promote.

So the positive story I wanted to share with you all is that I’m Kate, I’m deaf but I can lipread and sign. I’m passionate about deaf equality, awareness and inclusion and I am dedicated to supporting others through Semisound.

I’m on a relentless pursuit to hear better but acknowledge that if that’s not possible then I’m not a number or a statistic, I’m a person with unique worth and value and I have a huge dream to make a positive difference and I will do that! If I can do this then so can you!

Kate Tonge has had partial hearing from birth and experienced a sudden loss of hearing aged 16. In her spare time she loves reading and movies with subtitles!