Missed Connections Hard of Hearing in a Hearing World
Monday, February 9th, 2009Missed Connections Hard of Hearing in a Hearing World
“Why doesn’t she just open up her ears and listen?” Few physical problems are as poorly understood as hearing loss. In “Missed Connections”, a new kind of self-help book that combines sociological reporting with personal reflection, sociologist Barbara Stenross examines what hearing loss feels like to those who have it and which technologies and strategies can improve communication at home and in public. Based on seven years of research, Stenross’ book tells of how as she sought information and solutions to help her hard-of-hearing father she came to join a community group called Village Self Help for Hard-of-Hearing People.Taking us along to group meetings and into the homes of members, Stenross shows us through the personal accounts of these individuals the exhaustion that comes from constantly straining to listen, the frustration of missing critical comments or the punchlines of jokes, and the pain that hard-of-hearing family members experience when loved ones accuse them of hearing “when they want to.” Full of scenes, dialogues, and conversations, “Missed Connections” also discusses such practical issues as how people with impaired hearing can continue to use the phone, how assistive technologies can help in public and private, why hearing aids can’t always do enough, and how bluffing and silence can hurt more than help.Understanding that when one family member is hard-of-hearing, the whole family can suffer from “missed connections,” Stenross offers in this book a useful family resource with a broad range of practical guidance. With chapters on belonging and acceptance, do’s and don’ts in public, lip-reading, hearing aids, and television, “Missed Connections” will interest a range of readers including deaf and hard-of-hearing people as well as their families, teachers, friends, employers, and counselors healthcare professionals, scholars, and others interested in the experiences of and solutions for disability and hearing loss. Author note: Barbara Stenross teaches sociology and serves as Assistant Dean of the General College at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Very Helpful Book
I think this is one of the best books on the market for understanding people that are hard-of-hearing. I is easily read, and very complete. I think everyone who works along side a HOH person should read it. It explains what we hear and what we don’t. I really liked the two charts that were included. It helped me to show my boss and co-workers just where my hearing level is and what sounds I don’t hear. Anyone that lives or works with someone that is either hard-of-hearing or deaf should read this book. I would sure help us if others understood what they could do to make comucation easier for us.
5 Stars Good Basic Book
My Dad is hard of hearing so I was looking for a book that would inform me about it. This book has information about how to talk to a deaf person (slowly, facing them, light on face) as well as all the technology options available at the time.
5 Stars Fine Probe Into Hearing Loss and Deaf World
Having grown up in a deaf home, this sociology professor takes on this cultural area for her research, and finds much that she passes on in this well written book.
Especially productive in reading this is the insights given about the differences in hearing aids, with their telecoils and zoom features and the audio coil systems, etc. There is plethora of fine discussion of other technologies that assist the hearing impaired and their families and social contacts.
Since communication is critical to us humans, missed connections is a terrible thing to live with, and this fine work provides many helpful discussions and suggestions on overcoming or minimalizing them.
There are absolutely some awesome things to be grasped from this book: Helen Keller said that rather be blind than deaf; the almost impossibility of proficient lipreading or speechreading; the pingpong paddles signal system to either speak up, or that’s good.
This is great resource to be turned to and recommended.