By Erin Schafer, PhD
As audiologists, we live and breathe hearing technology, but we don’t always have the opportunity to learn about how a lifetime of hearing technology shaped a person’s life.
I had the distinct pleasure of learning about Rebecca Krill’s journey with congenital hearing loss in her recent TED talk, “How technology has changed what it’s like to be deaf.”
Rebecca has congenital hearing loss and has experienced many technological advances in hearing technology over the years. One of the most poignant statements during her talk was related to her decision to obtain a cochlear implant. She “needed to stop the soul-sucking cycle of loss” as her hearing loss worsened and was no longer helped by hearing aids.
This statement reminds me of the difficult decisions faced by our patients, particularly those who are candidates for cochlear implants. She also describes how her hearing loss is not her primary barrier in the word. Instead, it is the outdated way people respond to her deafness with pity, anger, and patronization.
She ends her talk by describing how far technology has come in her lifetime, but our mindset needs to catch up. I highly recommend this 13-minute TED talk, not only for audiologists and students, but for your patients. She provides a clear, easy-to-understand description of sensorineural hearing loss, cochlear implants, and the importance of technology for connecting with others.
Erin Schafer, PhD, is the editor-in-chief of Audiology Today magazine and audiology-related news content on www.audiology.org.
Related Posts
Sound Check: Mapping Hearing Loss in the United States
The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago is nonpartisan a research organization that aims to provide objective social science and data…
New Study Reveals Prevalence of Bilateral Hearing Loss in United States
A new study published reveals the prevalence of bilateral hearing loss in the United States by severity, age, state, county, sex, ethnicity, and residency. Regarding…
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Performs First Gene Therapy Procedure to Treat Genetic Hearing Loss in United States
There are more than 150 different genes that have been identified as causing hearing loss. A rarer gene, the otoferlin (OTOF) gene, was identified in…