Just found this site so I thought I'd sign up and post here.
I've been deaf since birth (1973), my hearing loss is quite severe with loss in 100dB range. However I was raised to speak (no ASL) and I'm quite good at talking... if I talk. I don't usually talk much anyway.
I attended Ann Arbor schools in the Hearing Impaired program. The program had just started for the deaf students thanks to my parents and a few other who were faced with either long trip to other Deaf friendly schools like Jackson or Flint (at the time, those 2 were the nearest) Graduated from high school in '93 and briefly attended college before I moved to my current residence in the Thumbs area of Michigan.
The last time I got new hearing aids (almost 2 years ago), my audiologist was very unhappy with what was available. Digital hearing aids only were being manufactured, and very few were powerful enough for my hearing loss. He thought analog hearing aids would have been better (and a lot cheaper) but the companies choose not to make them anymore. The cost of digital hearing aids? $3200 for a pair.
Before that expensive set the last analog set was only $1,000 for the pair. It was a lot more than inflation, it was probably various company's greed to discontinue cheaper analog hearing aids for the pricey digital version. 
Anyway a friendly hi from the farm at the thumbs. PS I know only some ASL, not enough for real conversation.
I've been deaf since birth (1973), my hearing loss is quite severe with loss in 100dB range. However I was raised to speak (no ASL) and I'm quite good at talking... if I talk. I don't usually talk much anyway.
I attended Ann Arbor schools in the Hearing Impaired program. The program had just started for the deaf students thanks to my parents and a few other who were faced with either long trip to other Deaf friendly schools like Jackson or Flint (at the time, those 2 were the nearest) Graduated from high school in '93 and briefly attended college before I moved to my current residence in the Thumbs area of Michigan.
The last time I got new hearing aids (almost 2 years ago), my audiologist was very unhappy with what was available. Digital hearing aids only were being manufactured, and very few were powerful enough for my hearing loss. He thought analog hearing aids would have been better (and a lot cheaper) but the companies choose not to make them anymore. The cost of digital hearing aids? $3200 for a pair.
Before that expensive set the last analog set was only $1,000 for the pair. It was a lot more than inflation, it was probably various company's greed to discontinue cheaper analog hearing aids for the pricey digital version. Anyway a friendly hi from the farm at the thumbs. PS I know only some ASL, not enough for real conversation.
