Put yourself in their shoes

I spent some time listening to the Starkey Hearing Loss Simulator (Starkey, 2024). I tried a couple of their sample scenario options, testing my hearing first with the simulation of moderate hearing loss, then mild, then normal hearing. I attempted to transcribe what I heard while listening.

The first time I got to the “Normal” hearing level, the volume was very loud - I realized that I had instinctively turned the speakers up on my computer when listening to the moderate hearing loss simulation in order to bring the volume up to a comfortable level. I am sure this must be how it feels for someone who experiences hearing loss in their normal life - the feeling that they wish they could “turn the volume up” across the board. I decided I would set my volume to a comfortable level (that represented what I think normal life would sound like), and then choose a different scenario from their list of options.

On my second listening run-through, I felt like I could get the gist of the situation when listening on Moderate hearing loss, but a lot of the details were missed. The audio plays on loop, so I found myself listening to the same audio over and over to get a better sense of what was said. This, again, is likely what a person experiencing actual hearing loss might feel, that they wish people would repeat themselves, but for the person who actually experiences hearing loss they have to ask for something to be repeated, which could be embarrassing.

Finally, I noticed that different voices were MUCH harder to understand - not just because they weren’t as loud, but because the hearing loss simulator seemed to make certain voice pitches (typically higher pitches) much muddier and harder to understand. I found myself almost ignoring certain voices and attempting to gain context for the conversation from the voices I could understand. I imagine that for the person experiencing actual hearing loss, this could be a temptation as well, because it takes a lot of energy to try to hear those difficult to hear voices. Because of this, they may be perceived as uncaring toward certain people, but in fact they just can’t hear them.

Now, here's some perspective on this exercise. First, for most people, it is very sufficient to get the gist of a conversation. When I listen to someone, I don’t really care what they said word-for-word, which is what transcribing the scenarios required. Second, transcription is directly impacted by typing speed, which can be a distraction to listening. A person experiencing actual hearing loss can focus completely on listening, while I had to focus on both listening and typing. Additionally, the sound of my keyboard added additional obstruction to my ability to hear.

Ultimately though, this exercise was very enlightening to what the experience of a person with hearing loss must feel like. There is a sense of isolation, especially at more acute levels, when it might feel like no one is making an attempt to draw you into the conversation, but rather just talking around you. I have noticed this sense of discouragement with my own father-in-law before he purchased hearing aids - he would sit quietly at the table while his children and grandchildren would talk and laugh, and you could tell from his posture and facial expressions that he had no idea what was being talked about, and felt incapable of participating. I was fortunate that my grandfather also had significant hearing loss and yet would take the time to ask for me to repeat myself or to speak louder and slower. This gave me the experience and awareness necessary to identify when a person was hard of hearing and to adjust my speech patterns in order to help connect them in conversation.

References:

Starkey (2024). Hearing Loss Simulator. Starkey.com. https://www.starkey.com/hearing-loss-simulator/simulator