DRO/BVA hearings...for hard of hearing Vets.

[broncovet]

As the HOH (hard of hearing) community knows, attending a hearing is, a souce of frustration.  

I have been to "ONE" meeting in my life, put on by the HOH community, where every word the speaker said was up front on a screen, similar to close captions.  

Of all the meetings I have been to this one was the best.  I knew every word they said!  No guessing!  

The VA needs to offer this for HOH Vets.  Its discrimatory for the VA NOT to do this with HOH vets.  I would love to be able to attend a hearing, but not if it means I am nothing but frustrated because I can not understand the speaker.  

Puleeze.  Dont tell me to ask the speaker to repeat.  If I did not hear it the first time, its unlikely I will hear it the second, third, or 4th time.  You see, most HOH people can hear very strong voices and sounds like vowels.  Try saying EEEEEEEEE real loud.  Its easy.  Now say F real loud?  Or S real loud.  You cant.  WE often mistake F,S, etc. 

So we work crossword puzzles in our head, firing in different consanants trying to make the word make sense in context.  

I will share a story that happened years ago, as to how just ONE sound makes all the difference.

A female friend called to ask me for help on her "email problem".  

"Sure, I will help.  I have time now, want me to come and help you with it?"  

She hung up.  Huh?  What is the problem?  Something is wrong here.  What is it?

Two days later, I figured it out.  She didnt have an "email" problem, she had a "female" problem. She did not need my help to fix her "female problem".    That one sound "F" made all the difference.  

This an example of why HOH dont want to attend hearings.  

Edited March 30, 2016 by broncovet

[Gastone]

Bronc, your VA Hearing aids don't help? What's your SC% for Hearing?

The Non VA ENT, that 1st DX'd my hearing problem, explained that most men have problems making out the words, when women speak. We hear the noise, just can't understand the words. I had found myself, staring at their lips, trying to lip read.

My VA Hearing Aids help quite a bit.

[toddt]

Gastone, mine work about as well as broncovets work.  When there are more than one person talking everything is just a jumble.  I have my hearing aids turned up as much as possible without get feed back.  Of course my tinnitus doesn't help either.   

I struggle to understand what people are saying.  It would be great if there was closed captioning as broncovet suggests.  As for staring at women's lips well . . . . .

[broncovet]

I just got new hearing aids from VA about a couple weeks ago.  And, yes, they are the best ones I have ever had.  This is  my 4th set of hearing aids, with the first one in 1998.  And, yes, if I had THESE hearing aids, I may have felt comfortable enough to do a hearing, as long as they were sympathetic to my hearing loss and make a few concessions, such as cut the fan motors, get  a quiet room, wait to speak to me until I can see your face, etc.  

I actually heard my grandson speak on the phone last week and I have NEVER been able to carry on a phone conversation with children ever (since about 1980)   (Their voice is just too soft.)  Mostly, I can not hear soft spoken females any better than my grandchildren, either.  

My Pastor has a VERY strong, powerful voice that carries.  I love that about him.  

My speech discrimination is 88 to 90 percent.  This means, about 10% of the time,  EVEN IF I hear the word (for example) "spoon", I dont know what it means, and can not get that this is an eating utensil in my head.  In other words, if someone said "spoon" in Chinese language, I may hear what they said, but a word picture of the eating utensil would not come in my head...I would just think...what did he say???

So, even with hearing aids, I am not able to comprehend 10-12% of the words spoken.   (Speech discrimination can not be fixed with hearing aids).  Fortunately, for me, Im an excellent reader, and, if I get to a word I dont know what it means I almost always immmediately look it up.   

Edited March 30, 2016 by broncovet