writings
Recommended
Pollen swirls on the river current, HLAA’s annual conference offers solid ground for anyone with hearing loss, and Matt Hay’s memoir can stir your soul.
The Frog in Hot Water
It’s leap year and World Hearing Day approaches! — Would that that meant that on March 3rd, the day designated as “World Hearing Day” everyone in the world could hear! And listen to each other! But that’s another story.
A New Day, A New Year
I launched hearability.space in 2023 with the goal of exploring how the ability to hear is compromised and how hearing-related activities and technologies can improve the experience. The exploration continues!
Calla Lily
Looking down into a calla lily I am reminded of the ear and the mysteries of nature’s designs.
S-Word, Part 2
It’s Almost Halloween: Look Stigma in the Eye and say BOO!
My recent article, “The S-Word,” sparked some strong reactions, which prompted me to try to further clarify my perspective.
White Noise
I have always been amazed at the audacity of artists — their "willingness to take bold risks” as Oxford Languages defines it.
Knowing my curiosity about all things pertaining to sound, a friend suggested an exhibit he thought I would find intriguing. He was right.
The S-Word
Technology for managing hearing loss has evolved. Talking points haven’t kept up.
The following piece is especially intended for everyone in the hearing healthcare industry and those (like me) who talk about this stuff with the desire to improve the lot of the hearing impaired.
DeafSpace — Assessing Environments of Sound
How can we hear better in this complex world?
Taking your environment into consideration and choosing how you interact within it can radically change your experience in the world.
Gallaudet University, the Washington, DC school for deaf and hard of hearing students, has been redesigning space to maximize visual information and communication.
The Music of the Lyric Video
What happens when your brain is freed up to listen?
I’ve discovered a new way to enjoy songs: the “Lyric Video!”
I have always loved an inspired marriage of music and words, the way the music enhances the storyline embedded in a song, and makes it come alive. Yet even when my hearing was intact, song lyrics could confound me.
Where Oh Where Did the Mute Button Go?
Hearing aids can be programmed for better and for worse.
Imagine you are walking down the street and you could tone down the intensely piercing siren, or keep the hot rod ghetto blaster from ripping your head off.
For me, one of the most immediately effective controls on my old hearing aids is the mute button. A quick press on the mute button is how I survive the assaults of city life, the approaching siren, the blaring, jacked-up, “look at me” aggression emitting from some idiot’s car. The mute button is also how I can concentrate reading or writing when there is ongoing ambient distraction.
Here’s to Your Hearing Health!
Government oversight is slow to change, but it’s changing.
On April 21, 2016, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hosted a workshop to gather perspectives on how to remedy untreated hearing loss, which the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) had identified as a serious national problem. I was invited to speak, and in my allotted 15 minutes I argued in favor of PCAST’s recommendations, which sought ways to “open up the market for innovative hearing technologies.”
Over the Counter and Through the Woods
Navigating options for hearing aids
The advent of hearing aids finally becoming available “over the counter,” gives me hope that more people who struggle with hearing may begin to get help. But hearing is so individual, I also fear that many people will try a device that does not help them enough and give up trying. Technology can transform your life, but only if you take charge!
An Emotional Ride with Hearing Loss
Adjusting to the ongoing challenge of hearing loss is worth the effort.
I am a life-long musician. As a sound engineer and record producer, I relied on my ears to make a living. You might suspect where this is going. Some years after I had (fortunately) shifted into developing multimedia and Web content, there was a moment when I was listening to an Aretha Franklin record, and it sounded altogether different to me than I remembered…