Hiya! I'm new here but I love your aesthetic! I'm a hearing person, but I'm working on a comic with a deaf character. I know from experience with ADHD how annoying it is when people overdramatize portayals of a disability so I very much want to avoid that, and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on things to avoid in that regard? (1/2)
ALSO, the story is sci-fi and the character has advanced hearing aids, are there any features/improvements you think we should make to hearing aids in coming centuries (2/2) (I realize the latter is kind of a weird question so feel free to ignore but I figured it might be a good idea to get a user's perspective)
Hi friend, thank you for your kind words! First off, thank you so much for wanting to be accurate! It means a lot that you’re taking the time to find out what you can to make your characters true to life. I apologize for the delay on this. I hope I’m still able to offer some help. This is pretty lengthy as I wanted to cover as much as possible, so I’ve put the bulk of it under the cut! I’m actually am going to start with the end of your question first as it ties into your first question quite well! One thing I get frustrated with is seeing how others who don’t have hearing aids, or who have no experience with those who do, pretty much butcher our technology. XDI am going to link you to a post I wrote on accommodations as accommodations (and the accuracy of them) can make or break how authentic a story feels: On AccommodationsI doubt that as hearing aids get better that our accommodations will change all that much. Many of us will still need subtitles, we’ll always need ways to be alerted to dangers, and we’ll need good forms of communication (telephones, texting, etc.). How that stuff looks in the future or in a sci-fi world is totally up to you! After all, hearing aids are a kind of accommodation.
In regards to hearing aids:I think the best way to avoid mistakes is to know what kinds of hearing aids there are and what kinds of people (typically) wear them. All hearing aids work on the basic principle of taking sound and amplifying it close to the eardrum. Also! Something that I think a lot of people forget/don’t realize is that sometimes you only need one hearing aid. Let’s say someone has perfect hearing in their right ear, but a hearing loss in their left. They would wear a hearing aid in their left ear, and that would help. Ok, so first things first, there are a number of different hearing aids. Behind the Ear (BtE) ones are the most common. These have a mold or a dome that goes in the ear while the computer that takes in and processes the sound is behind the ear (thus the name). The battery that runs the hearing aid hangs out with the computer behind the ear. Those of us with a bigger hearing loss have these as they are much more powerful. A mold is more beneficial than just the dome, as it can capture/direct more sound. Domes are paired with smaller BtE parts (usually called “mini” BtE, they are usually a little thinner and always a fair bit shorter). The hearing aids are strong, but not as strong as larger BtE hearing aids. Then you have the in the ear hearing aids. I have absolutely no experience with these fellows, aside from seeing what my grandparents wore. These hearing aids are much smaller and go directly into the ear. The computer, battery, all of it is in one little place, and all goes in the ear. These are fully concealed. Apparently there’s some variation of this, ones that go in-the-ear (ItE), in-the-canal (ItC), and completely-in-canal (CiC). While I can’t tell you much about this, I do know that the deeper the hearing aid goes, the closer it is to the eardrum which allows for more accurate sound. Here are two links to hearing aid brands I’ve used in the past: Phonak and Signia. Hopefully they’ll help give you a better idea of what hearing aids can (and can’t) do, and what they can look like! No matter what kind of hearing aid you (or in this case your character) has, hearing aids do not hurt to put in. The only time they hurt to put in is if you put them in too quickly and shove them in too deep. If someone has had their hearing aids all their life this isn’t gonna happen that often. But trust me, when it does and if you hit your eardrum there will be cursing involved XD (personal experience). What we have and how to improve it: + Bluetooth! Ok, so I don’t personally use this (cause it drains the battery so quickly), but many hearing aids now a days have the ability to be programed/paired with Bluetooth. This allows us to take phone calls, watch TV, listen to the radio, and have it all go directly to our ears/hearing aids. This gives us more pure and accurate sound. I don’t see this going anywhere. I think that eventually this would be the norm, and batteries would be much more powerful to keep up with it. + Custom programing is done to any hearing aid you get through your audiologist. After the hearing test the audiologist will customize the hearing aid’s program to match your hearing loss. Obviously I don’t see this going anywhere, but I do see it being improved upon! I think it would be super awesome if the hearing aids kept track of what sounds were caught/missed. So for example, if my hearing aid catches the sound of a person saying “sh” and I don’t respond to it, my hearing aid would keep track of that. When I go back to the audiologist they’d be able to plug the hearing aid into the computer, see where my hearing is based on data collected. They could then tweak the hearing aid programing based on that data. Not a thing, but daggum that would be cool. What I would like to see: + One super cool thing those of us with BtE hearing aids have is the ability to customize them. Now, we do have to go to our audiologist and ask them to customize the look to our desired color/pattern. It would be neat if we could take out that middle-man and click a button on our hearing aid and change it to whatever color we want. + Currently, hearing aids are not waterproof. I’ve been caught in downpours without an umbrella and it’s made my hearing aids short out. Waterproof hearing aids would be the best and coolest thing ever! I’d love to eventually see that and get to the point where showering, swimming, and going for runs in the rain wouldn’t impact the hearing aids. I know this was a wall of text, and no doubt a long wait. I hope it was worth it though and that you find it helpful! Feel free to ask more questions or for clarification. I’d love to see what you come up with in regards to your comic! Best of luck on it!