Deafness: The Hidden Disability

 

Hundreds, maybe thousands of sounds go through our ears every day that we take for granted but can you imagine what it would be like to have none of that?

For people who are profoundly deaf like Christina, these every day sounds from the birds chirping to your own husbands voice can be hard to decipher even with the help of hearing aids. She explains that they merely amplify the noise, but with her lack of clarity and inability to hear sharp sounds, she finds it difficult to make out the emotions in peoples voices.

Deafness is referred to as the hidden disability because initially it isn’t something that is as strikingly obvious as some disabilities. The struggles of people like Christina who are profoundly deaf but try their hardest to keep up in what they refer to as ‘the hearing world’ are something that are very common for the deaf community. Lip reading along with her hearing aids and a desire to preserver has gotten her this far, “I bluffed people into thinking I was hearing for years” Christina explains.

Deafness is a disability that can have an effect on lots of every day life tasks that we take for granted.  Christina tells us of some of the hurdles she overcame such as her education, which took extra effort and some help from The Deaf Society, who still help deaf students today. Her career was also something that was effected by her deafness as things like the inability to talk on the phone or interact well in large crowds meant that she was limited to certain jobs, “I’ve done a career which I can do as a deaf person without too much hassle.”

After a lot of consideration and a desire to be able to improve her family and social life, Christina underwent surgery to get a Cochlear Implant. Hearing her own voice at the switch on was one of the biggest shocks of her life. This step for her was a life changing event and her husband, Ian, described the switch on as one of the most emotional events of his life.

It has improved her life in so many ways, especially socially as Ian explains “confidence is the greatest improvement that I have noticed.” In this video we explore Christina’s experiences as a deaf person, her reasoning for getting the cochlear implants and her bright future.