When my son got hearing aids as a child, his audiologist was a man with a terrible stutter. It was remarkable to see how he was respected and honored at the place, as a brilliant man, not as someone who should feel embarrassed. There was no way for that disability to be concealed!
A role model for me.
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First let me give you my thanks and gratitude for what you do. You are someone who needs to be applauded for all you do. Helping these infants is by far most admirable.
(we are the grandparents of an infant, born prematurely at 7 mos., 2 lbs at birth & still dealing with hospitalization - we beg for people like you to help us in this time of need.)
Regarding your “level of acceptance …”, please know that I for one (I too wear HAs) would rather you wear hearing aids to help as much as they can rather than just trying to hear everything and missing a lot! As for hiding them behind your hair and feeling embarrassed, it seems to me that people don’t feel embarrassed when having to wear eye glasses, or most don’t feel embarrassed using a cane or a wheel chair. A hearing disability is no different than any other disability and it would be wonderful if everyone would accept it that way. Don’t hide them; acknowledge them; be honest with your patients. If someone doesn’t accept the situation, at least you know you were honest and forthcoming with everyone. It’s difficult I know trying to “hear” with HAs, but it is certainly better than struggling without them. Hopefully HAs will improve so we can actually “hear”. But, in the meantime, please try to accept the need and know we appreciate you for your honesty. Some people don’t understand many disabilities until they could possibly be walking in those people’s shoes. I know myself I didn’t understand my own mother’s issue with her hearing disability until I now am walking in her shoes! Be brave!
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Retired software engneer, lifelong musician. I wear hearing aids - RICs with the body of the aid behind my ear. No-one has ever commented to me about the aids, as far as I can tell no-one has an opinion about them one way or the other.
I will occasionally call attention to my hearing deficit if I’m having trouble hearing - I’ll simply mention that I’m hard of hearing and ask folks to repeat something they said. Invariably people are more than happy to simply repeat what they said without any kind of derogatory comment.
I think people see hearing aids kind of like eye glasses. No-one looks down on anyone for wearing glasses, as far as I can tell no-one looks down on anyone for wearing hearing aids.
I don’t think you need to be concerned.
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Thank you so much for your kind words! I sincerely believe that every baby born prematurely will be healthy! and this is just a test and a stage of his parents’ life that needs to be passed. Such babies are unique! They have a great zest for life. I often have to find words of support for their parents to convince them that everything will be fine, you just need to believe in your baby! I often want to say, “Hey, look at me! I use assistive devices, and that didn’t stop me from becoming a doctor in order to help your baby!” But every time, fear and a sense of awkwardness stops me from saying it and pushing my hair back and showing it. So it’s a sore spot for me, I’m just afraid to cry at this moment! After all, I am strong and in the eyes of the patient I should not feel sorry for myself. But starting today, I decided to change that about myself, I decided to become more open to people. I really love people and most often they answer me the same. I don’t want to waste my energy anymore trying to hide my flaw
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You have bionic superpowers, don’t hide it!
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Please don’t beat yourself up by referring to your hearing loss as a “flaw”.
My Ophthalmologist has one leg which is deformed, and walks with a very pronounced limp. He is very self assured, and I, as well as all his other patients respect and admire his professionalism, and abilities.
I never doubted him when he performed cataract surgery on me, and I readily refer him to all my acquaintances.
It’s meaningless to judge a person by their physical limitations.
You are a professional with elite skills, and you should expect and demand respect!
Hearing aids do not diminish your knowledge and wisdom.
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Thank you very much for your answer! I will strive to form such an experience at home! I really want to be able to say to someone: Don’t worry! people think of hearing aids as glasses! Let me tell you about my experience, maybe it will help.»
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thank you very much for your response! He is very important to me
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I agree, this is worthy of respect!
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Oh I used to be so embarrassed of my hearing aids…I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to get IIC aids. I could finally wear my hair up! The problem was they weren’t exactly strong enough for me, but vanity won. I used to hide it professionally and for myself into all sorts of embarrassing situations. I found out a lot of people thought I was snooty or stuck up because they would say “hi” or random greetings and I would just keep walking on. It’s happened multiple times that co-workers, colleagues or acquaintances would finally find out I was HOH and just give me this ohhh face.
I’m now at the point professionally where I wasn’t everyone to know I’m HOH. All new clients I have I let them know in their consultations. I travel and teach and it’s one of the first things I tell the class when I introduce myself. It makes communication so much better. Maybe because I grew up with aids, I don’t consider them a flaw? I had and ex who tried to convince me I had a disability, but I was never raised to see it that way.
You would also be surprised how little people notice. I have cyborg tattoos around both my ears to try to draw attention to the fact that I wear hearing aids now. When I tell people I’ve got them, they look surprised “oh I had no idea.” I promise you people notice more when you constantly try to hide them, like nervously or constantly covering your ears with your hair. If you don’t care, most people won’t notice and if they do notice, they won’t care.
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How true this state of “I promise you people notice more when you constantly try to hide them, like nervously or constantly covering your ears with your hair” you described it very accurately! And it annoys me very much in myself. Therefore, I made a firm decision to change the situation! Thank you for sharing your perspective on the situation, it’s very motivating!
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How exactly! 
Thank you!
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Most of the time the people that I see to treat have no idea I have hearing aids. Only if i am in a challenging hearing situation and and ask them to repeat themselves louder as I am hearing impaired or if a patient has aids and is embarrassed about difficulty heaing then I will show them mine and so they know that I understand their feelings.
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If having an assistive device (HA) allows you to be a better professional to do your job, why would a patient ever be against that? Do I want my surgeon to not wear glasses to not see what they are doing on my surgery, I doubt it!
In today’s society, if the patient was not being “inclusive” to your needs than maybe you don’t really want them as a patient and they can go elsewhere if they feel that strongly oppposed to it. I’ve been wearing them for over 50 years, the last few decades noone I meet has ever brought them up to be honest, thankfully they are more of a norm now and way much less stigma which is the way it should be. You need to be “yourself” and care less about what others think.
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Thank you for your response!
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Way back before being prescribed hearing aids, I mentioned to a fairly new friend that I didn’t hear well. He was astonished - and asked why had I not told him before “It would have explained a lot”.
So he had been thinking I was odd, probably returning some bizarre answers! Now, some 50 years on, I deliberately draw attention to my hearing aids and say they are not perfect. Always, people slow down a bit and some even remember to face me when speaking! I think the horrible
old coupling of Deaf/Daft has long gone. Some prominent musicians - Paul McCartney for example - are known to have lost some hearing. Occupational hazard. Good luck!
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I was a pro ski instructor for 35 years.
I also taught with Ontario Track III teaching people with disabilities. I learned more from them than I taught.
One day I said, I’m sorry. I’m hard of hearing. Please repeat what you said. She said, “Don’t ever apologize when you can’t hear. I never apologize for my muscular dystrophy!”
Hope this helps.
(For 10 years I taught their examiners how to teach how to ski)
And their teaching helped me when I fell and my foot went backwards)
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I work in the UK civil service where there’s a proactive effort to be inclusive. I say effort as it’s not perfect but it’s better than a lot of employers. Discrimination isn’t a good look here and it’s dimly viewed by HR.
Most people I work with regularly are reasonably understanding. I took a cue from a colleague and have a politely assertive note in my email footer pointing out I’m hard of hearing and email/messenger is best for me. My team cut me a fair degree of slack I think.
The age of work from home (mostly) has been transformative for me as I conduct most of my work online and therefore meetings are all done by streaming to my HAs. In person events are still hard to manage and I have avoided some social things (Xmas party etc) given they’re often in loud spaces (bars/restaurants), people aren’t thinking ‘hey he’s hard of hearing, I should ensure I’m facing him and not covering my mouth’ and I’m usually pretty drained by this point.
Previously I was an archaeologist, working 5 days per week in an office and regularly in cars and the outdoors. Lots of big meeting rooms, people speaking and so on. In that regard it was total torture. There was a lot less understanding and I wasn’t so savvy about asserting my needs.
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I’m assuming you’ve gone through Access To Work to get the best aids possible as well as extra Assistive Listening Devices to meet your identified needs?
We help a few people on this basis, your local audiologist will be able to help with written quotations to deliver against this scheme.
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Interestingly, I had strabismus correction performed by a pediatric ophthalmologist when I was 69 years old, about 11 years ago.
Yes, I sat in the tiny office chairs and watched “The Lion King” and “Cinderella” umpteen times and cried when that wonderful surgeon demonstrated with her magic prism that after my surgery, for the first time in decades, I’d be able to see one image instead of two without putting my trifocals prism glasses on.
That surgeon performed that miracle for me.
Would I have cared if she’d been wearing hearing aids? NOT EVEN THE SLIGHTEST BIT.
I would likely have been interested because before retirement I’d worked in a position somewhat related to the hearing profession, but I’d researched her credentials prior to my surgery and found her to be a stellar professional.
I’m going to guess from your description that you have very ample reason to have confidence in your skill and numerous successful surgeries in your record to prove it.
Since my surgery I’ve lost some hearing during a COVID infection. I’m a practicing musician and I wear hearing aids. No one sees them, in spite of the fact that I chose a bright primary color for them and wear my hair short and cut around my ears.
You know your skill set, and you know if it is impacted upon in any way because of your hearing loss. You know you benefit from top level hearing enhancement tools and you know how to use them.
Trust yourself. I feel strongly that if I were to need additional surgery and my own surgeon was unavailable, I’d trust you with my sight.
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