Disclosure Strategies Can Help Communication for People with Hearing Loss

How you choose to disclose your hearing loss to friends or relatives can have a lasting impact on your communication. Asking for accommodation isn’t always easy, but the benefits are many. The online journal, Ear and Hearing, published a 2015 study about the different ways in which people disclosed their hearing loss to others and the benefits that came with it.

The Study

A study by researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear created a 15-question survey and worked with 337 participants to gather information about the actual phrases that people used to inform others about their hearing impairment. They codified their findings into three types of disclosures:

• Non-Disclosure – participants most often chose not to disclose their hearing loss. Instead, they used phrases that normal hearing people might use.

For example: Can you speak up? I can’t hear you.

• Basic Disclosure – participants disclosed that they have a hearing loss and shared details about their condition.

For example: Due to a childhood ear infection, I don’t hear well in my left ear.

• Multipurpose Disclosure – participants disclosed their hearing loss and also suggested an accommodation strategy.

For example: I’m partially deaf in my right ear. Please walk on my left side.

Researchers intended to use these findings to develop resources for hearing health professionals to help their patients develop effective strategies to disclose their hearing loss. “Health care providers are in a key position to help patients learn how to disclose their hearing loss,” said senior author Konstantina M. Stankovic, M.D., Ph.D., FACS, an otological surgeon and researcher at Massachusetts Eye and Ear. “We can educate them on the disclosure strategies we report on in our study, which may help them gain the confidence they need to disclose their hearing loss and improve communication with others.” She is also an associate professor of otolaryngology, the study of diseases of the ear and throat, at Harvard Medical School.

Advantages of Disclosure

There are many different benefits to each method of disclosure and ways those around you respond. The multipurpose method, however, may offer the most advantages for developing successful communication strategies. Its form requires the disclosure of more personal information, but the accommodation and support it garners are building blocks toward effective communication moving forward.

Of course, not everyone will be comfortable with the same disclosure method, but at the core of each is a search for a way to clearly exchange ideas. This study also sheds light on the hearing impaired and deaf community, a community which numbers upwards of 48 million individuals in the US alone.

An unexpected finding of the study conducted at Mass. Eye and Ear was that women more skillfully disclosed their hearing loss when communicating. According to statistics, women are twice as likely to use the multipurpose disclosure for the sake of improving their communication than their male counterparts. The women also stated that they felt more supported.

Education

Hearing loss can be an isolating, personal disability that is not widely shared with others. Disclosing by any of these methods can be very intimidating, especially with strangers. Yet, taking on the burden of listening harder or physically re-placing yourself constantly puts you at risk for other hearing loss-related conditions like dizziness and mental fatigue.

The Massachusetts Eye and Ear study suggests that hearing health professionals take the time and educate their patients about these various disclosure methods and to encourage them to be open to suggesting accommodations for effective communication. The hearing impaired and deaf population is often considered an ‘invisible’ population, meaning that not everyone with a hearing loss wears an aid or assisted hearing device or something that gives a visual cue to someone. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders reports that approximately 16 percent of adults aged 20-69 who could benefit from hearing aids have never used them. Even when a hearing aid is present, it may be so discreet or hidden that a method of disclosure is still the best course, as is the case with invisible hearing aids, like the Signia Insio NX series.

In school or work settings the dynamic can seem more complex, but disclosing hearing loss can actually be a simplifier. Conversations with large groups will become easier and those around you will shift their communication habits to accommodate you. You can also benefit from disclosure in social settings. Friends and family will gather with you in places where communication is easier and the benefit is fruitful conversation.

These are a few examples of the long-lasting benefits of multipurpose disclosure. Whichever method you are most comfortable with, take comfort in the fact that your hearing health professional has strategies and information to help.Use an online portal to find and schedule an appointment with a nearby audiologist today, and be sure to shop our discount hearing aids.