Fairy Ears...

This is another blog post by my friend Eloise... I asked her to write about overhearing this conversation because it shocked me so much!! 

It was a very bad day in audiology today. Not for me, but for a girl who looked to be the age of around six or seven waiting with her mother to go into an appointment.

“Mummy, please let me have the pink hearing aids,” she said, swinging her legs off the chair. She was pretty with brown, slightly curly hair which came past her shoulders. Her mum was also quite pretty but oozed pretentiousness throughout the situation.

“I promise I’ll be a good girl,” she continued, “All I want is fairy ears…”

Her mother interrupted before the girl could carry on. “Be quiet, Martha, we need to listen out for your name to be called.”

The little girl sat quietly, still swinging her legs around. She looked at the TV but the mumbling of the news could not keep her distracted for long.

“But mummy, Josh in year two at school has blue hearing aids and says they are like superhero ears! I want to be the same, but with fairy ears! And the nice hearing lady said I could have pink ones if I wanted!”

“Martha, how many times have I told you to be quiet about the fairy ears? You’re a big girl now and you can stick to brown. It blends in with your hair and so everyone thinks you’re normal. Josh’s ears are very nice, but you’re grown up now and all these colours look silly on such big children!”

At this point, I had become so angry and upset at the mother’s attitude that I had to switch my own hearing aids off. My hearing aids are pink with glitter moulds, blue tubes and butterfly stickers – and I’m eighteen years old. The fact that I can decorate my hearing aids gives me a sense of pride and identity as a young deaf person. It seriously upset me that this little girl could not get the ‘fairy ears’ that she desperately wanted. That small dream would have been in reach had her own mother let her have them. Instead, her mum, only concerned about appearances, forbid her own child from having the colour and design she so wished for.

"Eloise's hearing aids before blue tubes!"

To children, having the colour of hearing aids and ear moulds that they want can make all the difference between being confident and proud of who they are or being frustrated. I just wonder whether in the future, this little girl, Martha, will grow up wanting to show her hearing aids, or whether her confidence will be low and she’ll be constantly asking God “Why me?”

Please share your opinions on this situation. What would you say to the mother and the little girl? I certainly know what I’d say, and the mum probably wouldn’t like it!

Team V needs you!! Tackling Youth Homelessness...

A slightly different blog post than usual this time as I wanted to tell you all about the work I've been doing with vInspired an organisation connecting young people with charities and voluntary organisations as well as promoting self development.

Each year vInspired runs an amazing opportunity for young people aged 18-25 called Team V and after a long interview process I've amazingly made it onto this years Team V 2012!

Over the course of the year Team V will run 3 national campaigns within their local communities by recruiting a "dream team" of volunteers to manage PR, media, finance and pretty much any other role you can imagine within a campaign!

The first campaign reveal was last weekend and I'm happy to announce that our first campaign will be tackling youth homelessness and promoting awareness of organisations offering help for young people experiencing youth homelessness.

Below is the campaign video - entirely accessible :) A big step as I've previously complained to vInspired about their videos being all speech and no subtitles...

I think you'll agree that the statistics around youth homelessness are pretty amazing - and not in a positive way... I was shocked to learn how many young people experience youth homelessness and even more shocked to learn how many of my fellow Team V members had personal experience of homelessness and living in supported accommodation.

I'm really excited to start campaigning but i really really need volunteers!! Team V has never had a deaf young person involved before and this year we have 2 - but id love to have a "dream team" of deaf and hearing volunteers who could work together to run this campaign!

As you saw from the video there are a number of steps involved in this campaign... contacting a local organisation... running an event or exhibition... and organising an eye catching stunt in order to draw attention to youth homelessness!

I can't do all that by myself - so if you're interested in campaigning to raise awareness of youth homelessness, live in the Birmingham area and would like to get involved then please give me a shout!

You can comment on this blog post with your email address, or you can email me directly at teamvnairi@gmail.com

As well as volunteers I could also do with a couple of interpreters or communicators - I have a campaign budget but i'd rather spend it on the campaign than interpreters to help out :) again if you're interested get in touch!

For more information take a look at the vInspired Team V page :) http://vinspired.com/teamv

Starting University... and wearing my hearing aids for 17 hours!

This was first published on the Limping Chicken :) 

I’m writing this sat in the laundry room of my university.

From what I can work out there are 3 washing machines and a tumbler dryer on the go but all I can hear is, well, nothing. This is what I love about university. I woke up this morning and looked at my hearing aids before thinking – “you know what, today I want to be Deaf.” Nobody stopped me, my parents didn’t nag me. There wasn’t even a particular reason, and even though I can’t hear anything I feel perfectly safe because for the first time I have a pager in my pocket which I know will vibrate like hell if the fire alarm goes off.

As well as all this silence I’m feeling amazingly awake, buzzing, and full of energy… Despite having two hours of lectures already today I don’t feel like I’m in information overload – the reason why? Oh, well I have an interpreter now! In terms of academics and support I’m loving it! After years and years of battling for support in a mainstream school, with a council that never seemed to come through with support even when it was promised, I feel like I’m on cloud 9 right now. This is another thing I love about university.

I’m not going to lie though; there have been moments when the tears have spilled over and I’ve sat in my room with my hearing aids out wishing and hoping that another deaf person will just walk through the door and start up a conversation with me. You see, although I have enormous amounts of fantastic support within university outside of lectures it’s just me. All on my own. My university is actually split into three campuses – North, South (that’s me!) and Millennium Point – and although there are apparently a couple of other deafies up at City North, here at South I’m the only one.

In the long run I hope this won’t matter too much, that people will become more deaf aware and that the university will hurry up and organise a deaf social event like they’ve promised! But at the minute it means that for the first time in years I’ve felt almost (shock horror!) like a hearing person…
Whereas I would normally do as I’ve done today and spend any free moment hearing aidless I realised last week that what with moving in, talking to new people (scary!) and going out for Freshers I’d actually had one day where I wore my aids for 17 whole long hours… That has to be some kind of record! I found myself sitting in conversations, where I couldn’t hear much of what was being said, debating the benefits of stem cell research and cochlear implants… Scary thoughts for someone who’s always sworn blind they would never consider them! Not that I’m saying I would – but I’m really starting to see why people would think about it!

In the defence of my lovely and wonderful flat mates, and flat next door mates, they have made an effort! Nearly all of them now know their names in sign, as well as various things such as “hello”, “good morning” and amusingly “where are the tea bags…?” So I can’t fault them for effort. But I think it’s more of a general misunderstanding about the complexities of not being able to hear half of a conversation, or not ever having had to think about how tiring it is to lip read a conversation all day. But I do love them all to bits, and I hope that over time they’ll become fluent signers or at least incredibly deaf aware!

To look back over my past week I have to say that moving in day was the most daunting experience, a flat full of new people who could have potentially been horrendous to lip read was never going to fill me with joy! But I do seem to have lucked out – so far all my flat mates have been easily lip readable!

I suppose the funniest moments have been in clubs where at first I felt even more isolated until I realised that people’s deaf awareness increases ten-fold. Suddenly texting on phones when you can’t understand is acceptable and normal, and using gestures and signs is common place! I even found I had an advantage – lip reading skills are very useful in a club!

I guess in conclusion I should say that after a week and a half I both love and hate university. I love my support and my friends. I dislike the general lack of deaf awareness, but I applaud the efforts made by everyone I know (well most of them…). At the same time I do hate not having my deaf friends around me – I find myself overjoyed just to have an appointment with my disability advisor and actively seeking out speech and language therapy students or pretty much anyone with sign language skills!!

I’m sure that overtime things will improve and so for now I’m staying as positive as possible! But if you’re reading this and you happen to be a deaf person living in Birmingham please do get in touch! I would love a coffee with another deafie!! 

Writing for the Buzz -Pimping My Hearing Aids And Cochlear Implants

Our group were recently given the opportunity to write for the NDCS Buzz to promote our group and give others the chance to learn about decorating the hearing aids and cochlear implants! This is what will be published...

Do you think your hearing aids or cochlear implants look dull and boring? 

Would you like to make them individual, funky and fun? 

Why not try customising them? 

By using small stickers or gems you can create a look that’s unique to you; or if you want something even funkier you can use nail foil stickers to cover the whole of you hearing aids or cochlear implants! (Don’t cover the microphones!) 

You can also use printable sticky paper to create your own designs or use Tube Riders, Skinits or Ear Gear! 

Pimp my Hearing Aids and Cochlear Implants is a group set up by teenagers (with help from some parents!)  who felt that their hearing aids and implants were uncool and wanted different ways to show them off with bright colours and awesome designs! The group has grown and now has nearly 300 Facebook members who share pictures of their jazzy aids and implants or share advice about new ways to customize!

Pimp my HAs and CIs Facebook Page

Pimp my HAs and CIs new blog!

Skin-its for Advanced Bionics 

Connevans Ear Gear 

Tube Riders :)