An Interview with Tina Lannin, founder of 121 Captions. I recently interviewed Tina Lannin, founder of 121 Captions, a UK-based agency that brings speech-to-text and remote captions to deaf people across the world. Tina is not only a successful business woman but also a forensic lip reader, an important role played by expert witnesses in the justice system. I was …
How Hearing Loss Has Made Me Stronger…and more
Earlier this month, I was featured on a podcast called Life Athletics, hosted by my friend and fellow Bali resident Nik Wood. We talked about all kinds of topics related to my hearing loss – communication struggles, my relationship, what it was like to put in hearing aids for the first time at age 20. But most importantly, my conversation …
BBC Video: How Not To Teach Your Girlfriend About Hearing Loss
A couple of weeks ago I was in London telling a story about hearing loss on television. And that video is now live! Myself and other five brave people with all sorts of disabilities walked up on stage and for 10 minutes told a story on how our disability affected our relationships. All these stories had something in common: laughter …
Jobs with hearing loss: which ones can you do?
HINT: You can do any jobs with hearing loss. The other day Srinivas—one of my readers—asked me a question: “I know you’ve talked with lot of people with hearing loss. What kind of jobs do they do? I am asking because I sometimes feel exhausted working in a company, and I thought freelancing might be a good fit for me.” …
[Video] How To Measure Echo In A Room
In the previous video of this series I showed you 3 simple tricks you can use to reduce echo in a room. In this video I’m going to show you how to measure the echo in a room. Why? Because it’s useful to put a number on the level of echo you can tolerate. That’s gonna help you adjust the …
[Video] 3 Simple Tricks To Reduce Room Echo
A few weeks ago I wrote the article How To Defeat Mind-Numbing Room Echo where I explain a few tricks to control echo in a room. I suggest you read the article too. Why is this important? When you wear hearing aids, echo can be one of your worst nightmares. Hearing aids aren’t as good as the brain at isolating …
How To Let Others Know About Your Hearing Loss
Is this scenario familiar? You’ve just met someone, and you’re eager to get to know her. She’s got a great smile, warm eyes, and her mouth is moving. But you can’t really hear what she’s saying. But she’s not asking questions, so you’re like: well, I’m gonna nod and smile and hope she won’t ask me anything… Until the worst …
What Is Your Next Step?
Here’s a thought. Does hearing loss really hold us back from doing the things we love? Does it really prevent us from: Attending a large conference Speaking at a large conference Looking after a child Enjoying time with family Going to the theatre Maybe. Or maybe it just creates an uncomfortable feeling of unknown. Will I hear the speaker? Will …
Wish Your Hearing Aids Were Invisible?
The pros and cons of having visible hearing aids. Last Wednesday—a first Wednesday of the month—several hearing-loss champions gathered on Twitter for #hearinglosshour, a public hearing-loss chat group. This group is run by a brilliant deaf writer and entrepreneur, Angie Aspinall. She is very talented, but she wields one super skill that leaves me speechless: Angie can sustain multiple conversations …
How to Actually Enjoy a Christmas Party With Hearing Loss
This weekend is Christmas! Woohoo! Bells will ring, and Santa will hover the skies in his sleigh. Even better: the whole family will get together, and we’ll get to catch up with all those people we don’t usually see. Family members and dear friends. Jolly times ahead, right? Except for those with hearing loss; Christmas gathering is one of the …