How to transition into being less oral?

witchiewormie

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Hello! My name is Juno, and I've been losing my hearing at a progressive rate since I was a young, young teenager. I'm nineteen at this point, and have lived with some kind of hearing loss from around the time I was thirteen. By this point, without my hearing aid I might as well be considered deaf in conversation.

I can hear that there is sound going on just fine, and to most extents can tell between each sound I hear. But, understanding speech at all without some kind of aid—or me lip reading and piecing the sentence together—is a moot point.

It's become to the point where I want to start making a major change in my life to not be as oral as myself or anyone around me is used to. It's something I wanted to do for a long time as someone who preferred ASL over English right off the bat, but was unable to do since I'm pretty much deprived from the Deaf community and know only hearing people.

I was wondering if anyone had any experiences with prolonged, progressive hearing loss and making a conscious decision to transition to a more accessible way of communication. How would I go about it besides simply urging others to learn ASL?

It's become terribly fatiguing to try and track conversations, hearing aid or not, so this really is becoming a necessity to me for others to learn, and for myself to stop trying to pretend to be a hearing person, because I'm just not one anymore.
 
Hi Juno!
I understand your frustrations! Do you have ASL classes near you? Maybe you can find a Deaf community nearby. Try community colleges, local Deaf schools as they might have resources you can use.
If you can, why not think about going to Gallaudet or other colleges that have a large Deaf communities?

Here's some resources to check out find your state-

Try out this app on Android devices Google Live Transcribe. I found it helpful in some situations. It's not perfect but give it a try. There are other apps as well.

Now for social situations that's where it gets tricky. Try out the app Or have a small group where everyone takes turn talking. This is where ASL is handy. Being in a signing environment really allow you to fully participate social situations better.

There are groups like for late deafened / hearing loss groups too such as https://alda.org/

But definitely keep going to ASL classes and see if you can be around other Deaf/signers like volunteer at the deaf school, a church that has signing, or something.

Hope this helps ! :) And that you're not alone in this situation many people struggle with this too!
Annie
 
Greetings wichiewormie, I feel your pain, clerk at store asked if I could talk I said yes she asked why I didn't I said then people think I can hear them she said makes sense, and the fatigue of trying to understand I gave up last year, I'm fairly good for an hour or two if I have to but I'm old I've heard it all before so it's not so important, I know when to try and when to let it slide, to get along in a hearing world I speak when I have to but I don't make it a habit, at your age I know not what to advise, youngsters help!;)
 
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