When Your Ears Can't Help You See

Strategies for Blind and Low Vision Individuals with Hearing Loss
By Deborah Kendrick
In 2 volumes

What do you do when everyone at work and home seems to be mumbling, and you are missing words in your favorite TV shows or talking books? What do you do when the echolocation that used to let you "see" with your ears is suddenly silent? And what happens next when the third (or thirteenth) person tells you they rang the doorbell, and you realize that, no, it is not broken: your ears are? The good news is that, just as you found with working around blindness — whether you grew up blind or lost your sight in your fifties — there are techniques and technologies that can work with limited hearing. Coverage includes: issues and adaptations specific to blind individuals with hearing loss; the dangers of isolation; choosing an audiologist; selecting hearing aids and personalizing them to your specific needs; choosing hearing aid apps and accessories; other assisted listening devices available; covering the costs; and much more.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Medical Disclaimer
Introduction

Chapter 1: Who's Saying "What?"
Who's Not Hearing?
If This, Then That
People Versus Things: The Risk of Isolation
What to Do About It

Chapter 2: From Secrecy to Strategy
Keeping It Secret (Keeping It Safe)
Circling the Table
Decorating for Sound
Party Planning
The Importance of Explaining Yourself
Context and Content

Chapter 3: Hearing Aids
Maintaining Hearing Health
Where to Go
A Word About Stigma
Audiograms and Other Terminology
Not Your Grandfather's Hearing Aid
Types of Hearing Aids

Chapter 4: Training Your Brain
Teaching You, Teaching Me
Occlusion
Localization
Echolocation
Training Your Brain
Taking It to the Street

Chapter 5: MFI, Bluetooth, and More
ComPilot
What Are MFi's?
A Few Caveats
Clarifications
All About Those Apps

Chapter 6: Hearing Aid Accessories
Remote Mics
Roger Pen
ConnectClip
Watching TV Again
Audio Description and Closed Captions
Direct Audio Input

Chapter 7: Before and After Hearing Aids
PSAPs and ALDs
PockeTalker
Sonic SuperEar
Bose Hearphones
PSAPs from Hearing Aid Manufacturers
Hearing Devices You Might Already Own
A Place for Everything

Chapter 8: Your Audiologist
Do You Hear What I Hear?

Chapter 9: Getting Connected
Deaf-Blind Resources
Blind Hearing Aid Users Listserv
Deaf-Blind Division of the National Federation of the Blind
Sight and Sound Impaired (SASI) Committee
American Association of the Deaf-Blind (AADB)
Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA)
Getting There
Out and About
On the Phone
EarMachine and Listening Device
Heard That
CapTel
Other Resources
American Tinnitus Association
Helen Keller National Center
American Cochlear Implant (ACI) Alliance

Chapter 10: Covering the Costs
For Veterans
If You Work or Want To
iCanConnect
Other Funding Sources

Chapter 11: Beyond Profound
Facing the Music