One of the things I’ve been doing these last weeks is hunting down all sorts of online publications and communities that have to do with hearing loss, deafness, hearing aids, implants, audiology… The field is vast and the number of online spaces to discover event vaster!
I just discovered The Secret Deafie, an anonymous and multi-author column on The Limping Chicken. It’s a collection of personal anecdotes, from funny to poignant, and I had a really great time reading through them.
You’ll hear about using the Deaf Card to outsmart an angry man, signing on the Tube during rush hour, how forgetting to wear one’s hearing aids can be a good thing, a deaf person who gets a deaf awareness lesson, how missing subtitles in a Sky subscription push a deaf sci-fi fan into downloading, losing sight when you’re deaf, and yes, even fare-dodging (my personal favorite so far I would say).
Reading these stories makes it obvious to me how different the lives and challenges of these Secret Deafies and mine are, pointing out how wide a spectrum the expression “hearing loss” may cover. Expect more musings about vocabulary in a later post.