Sensory Impairment
Supporting Hearing Impairment
Information for people who are Hearing Impaired, Deaf and Hard
of Hearing
Anyone of any age. You probably meet and talk to someone with a
hearing impairment every day. It is estimated that 1 in 7 of the
total UK population have a significant hearing loss, this includes
9 out of 10 older people. So if you have a hearing loss, you are
not alone.
Those people who have had a gradual hearing loss may have
developed ways of compensating for this, such as lip-reading.
Sometimes they need extra help to cope within a hearing world.
Anyone with a hearing loss can easily feel isolated and left
out. Family gatherings where people chatter and laugh together can
be stressful and upsetting when you can't hear what's being said.
Background noise in pubs, restaurants and crowded places makes
joining in very difficult and often impossible. Noisy work places,
staff meetings and employers and colleagues with little or no
understanding of deafness add to the frustrations and disadvantages
of those with poor hearing.
If you are unfortunate enough to have a sight loss as well as a
hearing loss, a separate specialist leaflet is available for
additional information.
It can be one of many reasons. It could be because of genetic
inheritance - if a great grand-parent, grand-parent or parent have
had a hearing impairment, you may be more likely to have a hearing
impairment yourself, depending on the particular cause or
condition. Some people expose their ears to repeated loud noise.
People who have been exposed to very loud machinery at work or
those who served in the Forces many years ago were deafened by
explosions etc. Sometimes hearing loss is caused by disease (e.g.
measles, mumps, meningitis etc.) as a side effect of medication or
by your mother having rubella (German Measles) in pregnancy.
However for most people it is simply part of the ageing
process.
Hearing loss can occur through a variety of ear conditions or by
accident/trauma, and is described as mild, moderate, severe or
profound. People with mild loss have some difficulty hearing speech
in noisy situations. With moderate loss, they may have difficulty
following speech in ordinary situations without the use of a
hearing aid, and considerable problems in noisy areas. Usually they
can use a telephone if they are wearing a hearing aid by using the
T switch (this will cut down the background noise). Severe hearing
loss makes speech difficult to follow, even with a hearing aid and
people with profound loss may have no use or benefit from a hearing
aid. They may use a text phone (minicom) and if deaf from early
childhood, are likely to use sign language and/or lip-read.
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