New To Hearing Loss
Hearing loss and deafness
Your decision to do something about your hearing loss begins with understanding what is happening. Here is information for you or someone you know who may have trouble hearing.
A person with hearing loss: A person who cannot hear as well as someone with normal hearing in both ears is said to have hearing loss. Hearing loss may be mild, moderate, severe, or profound. It can affect one or both ears and lead to difficulty hearing conversational speech or loud sounds.
Hard of Hearing: 'Hard of hearing' refers to people with hearing loss ranging from mild to severe. People who are hard of hearing usually speak for themselves (spoken English) and can benefit from captioning, hearing aids, cochlear implants, and other assistive listening devices.
Deaf: 'Deaf' people mostly have severe to profound hearing loss, which implies little or no hearing. They use sign language and rely on interpreters and captioning when communicating with hearing people.
Image Credit: Hearing Loss Association of America