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Impaired Hearing Causes Social Isolations?

by Dieter Dollken
AT the "International Congress of Hearing Aid Engineers" recently staged In Hamburg, specialists from 25 countries confirmed what doctors have long suspected . disabling impairments of hearing are more common than most people think Partial deafness Is not Just a medical problem: 1t also has social Implications, because anything that Interferes with communication can lead to Isolation.
The congress delegates Included not only expert* from Industrialized countries but also observer* from Latin America and the Arab world.
Government representative* spoke In favour of creating a social framework In which "no stigma Is attached to hearing problems". Children with Impaired hearing, for Instance. should go to the same schools as their peer*. To make this practical, however, belter technical aid* are heeded.
According to experienced hearing aid engineers In Germany, it takes the average person seven to eight year* to fully accept that he ha* a hearing handicap. Thanks to greater persuasion by doctor* and progress on the technological front, many people today are ready to accept a hearing aid earlier than in the post.
In Germany, around 15 million people have hearing problem* — due to age. constant exposure to noise or other causes — but only ten per cent of them wear hearing aids.
Ear specialist* point out that impaired hearing not only Interferes with communica-
tion in normal family and social life; It also affects the sufferer's receptiveness to media information. Television pictures can become meaningless, for example, when the sound Is turned off. So. in an age of communication, people with a hearing handicap find themselves out In the cold.
Professor Dr Klaus Seifert, president of the professional association of ear. nose and throat specialists, points to other social consequences of impaired hearing; "Following a conversation with inadequate audition calls for greater concentration.
Anyone with a hearing handicap taking part In a discussion against a noisy background needs to be permanently on the alert: he Is as keyed up as a competition athlete waiting for the starting gun. Where the pressure to perform 1* so Intense, however. failure Is pre-programmed.
And failure here means switching off. withdrawing, becoming Isolated, which Inevitably means the sufferer ceases to lead a full life and — in many cases — becomes a social outcast!" In nearly all cases, the hard-of-hearing not only her less: they also hear Incorrectly.
People who are reluctant to wear a conventional hearing aid because it would make their handicap visible can choose. Instead, a genuinely Invisible device which is inserted deep within the auditory canal. Many new hearing aids are even programmable or can be fine-tuned by a remote control device carried, for example, In an overcoat ’ pocket. — IN Press