Hi! My name is Julie and this summer I am interning for HLAA Boston with my friend Alice. I want to start off this post stating that I don’t have hearing loss and I am not deaf, but at our school we have a great CAPS program so I work with and interact with lots of hard of hearing and deaf people. Also through this internship I have interacted and worked with many wonderful people who have hearing loss. I have seen the struggles and also the successes they have gone through. As someone who does not have hearing loss I have seen somethings that might be normal for people who have hearing loss but might be abnormal for people who don’t. Like I have seen many people try to speak louder to deaf people even though they can’t hear. In school forgetting captions on a video. While these are small things I think it can make people feel out of place and unwanted. Also in my time here I have learned that only 2% of the population of people with hearing loss know ASL, so if you meet someone with a hearing aid you shouldn’t assume they know ALS. Everyone’s experience with hearing loss is different and there is always a large variety of stories from each person. Talking to people who are so different but also connected by this experience you can see how they relate to each other but also how their experiences differ by each generation and each person. I hope in the future people with disabilities will be less stigmatized and will be given the accommodations they need. I see this organization bringing change and helping people with hearing loss as one step toward that!
