Hearing Loss: From Stigma to Strategy - Softcover

Simmons, Michael

9780720612240: Hearing Loss: From Stigma to Strategy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0720612241 ISBN 13: 9780720612240

Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers, 2005

Literally millions of people in Britain are affected by hearing loss, and the number is growing steadily. For many, it is a desperate situation, for others, an unwished-for challenge: to enter the world of hearing aids and gadgets, and to somehow come to terms with other people’s jokes blindness is never laughed at and the need to adjust a muffled, or even silent, environment. Michael Simmons, a distinguished international journalist until his retirement in 1997, has age-related hearing loss. Researching for this book, he soon realized it was a very poor relation in the deafness field. Deafness itself has been the subject of many, many books for many generations. Hearing loss, on the other hand, is swept under the carpet, under-researched, under-funded while also being routinely exploited by unscrupulous hearing appliance manufacturers. Simmons examines the stigma and the suffering of hearing loss, traces the history of fellow sufferers and the remedies they and their partners have tried, and goes on to look at the viable resources and remedies that are available. He finds there is light at the end of the tunnel.

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About the Author:

Michael Simmons worked for the Financial Times as a political journalist specializing in Eastern Europe. He later spent 20 years on the Guardian, once again in Eastern Europe, latterly commentating on political and social affairs in Britain. He is also a columnist for RNID's One in Seven magazine. He is the author of five books.

From Publishers Weekly:

Hearing loss, according to Simmons, is the most common sensory disability, and this memoir-cum-manual about adult-onset hearing loss should be read by anyone with the condition and those who know them. A retired British journalist who began going deaf in his 50s, Simmons does an excellent job of shedding light on hearing loss's devastating effects: "Losing your hearing cuts you off from everyday exchanges," and people can become unwittingly cruel. Particularly poignant is Simmons's description of asking people to repeat themselves, only to have them wave it off with a friendly smile and an "Oh, it doesn't matter." Such gestures, he points out, seem "to be brushing the thought, and possibly you, off the agenda." Equally powerful is the story of the chair of the National Association for Deafened People, who, in the early days of her hearing loss, "[o]ften... just stayed at home and hid." Simmons explains the physiology of hearing and the shortcomings of hearing aids, but most of his advice is specific to Britain. Still, if his book serves only to make readers reconsider before dismissing a hard-of-hearing person's request to repeat information, it will have served an important purpose. (July)
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