Zoom into subtitles

One of the banes of the pandemic has been the prevelance of Zoom as a medium for online meetings but with no facility for subtitles. At last they have provided an automatic caption which does not rely on have someone typing in the words. They are pretty good. I am guessing it is only available on a paid for subscription though!

Battling with hearing aids

As we get better at lipreading, our friends and family tend to forget that we don’t hear so well. We need to keep reminding them to make sure we are looking at them when they talk to us. I have a friend who gets cross with herself every time she realises she has turned away so that I miss the punch line. Then she blames me because she says I “don’t look deaf”. Erm…?

Hearing aids do not produce perfect sound.

Part of getting used to new hearing aids is becoming accustomed to the strange quality of the sound they give us. I have just been ordering a new bathroom mirror by phone and spoke to a very helpful lady. But when I asked for her name it turned out I was talking to a man! The other day I thought for a minute they were talking about putting restaurants into space.

Three pensioners are sitting on a bench. One observes that it’s windy, the next says “no, Thursday” and the third says “me too, let’s go and have a beer”

Census 2021 - Own Goal

My Census letter arrived this morning. Very disappointed that the SMS option was missing offer the contact infromation. But it is on the website. But what is totally missing is any postal address. A phone call to the local Census Support Centre elicited the news that they don’t have one. It seems that the ONS just never considered the possibility that some people may not be able to use neither a phone, nor have access to the internet and will need to write for a paper copy of the form.

NHS 111 - No Access by Text!!!!

It is a sad indictment of the NHS111 system that it is not possible to access the service by text. So say you live alone, it is out of surgery hours, you need urgent assistance but cannot use the internet and cannot hear on the phone. What do you do? Go without. (Unless you use British Sign Language.) Bodies such as the Surrey Coalition for Disablement, ably supported by Sight for Surrey are waging a campaign to get this altered. Indeed at a seminar in January 2020, Department of Health officials promised it would be added to the specification for the next update to the service. But two things are emerging. Firstly, the NHS appears to be blocking this, and secondly, it is rumoured that the 111 service is to become the gateway for accessing all GP services. Please write you your MP now asking for this to be properly debated in Parliament.

Invisible hearing aids?

Why are the manufacturers so fixated on making our hearing aids unobtrusive? This morning there is an ad in my browser for “invisible” devices. Hearing loss is nothing to be ashamed of. The days when a deaf person was automatically labelled as dumb, are surely long gone in the 21st century. The more our companions realise that we are struggling to hear, the more chance we have of getting them to learn how they can help us – and them in turn. So trying to hide the condition is self-defeating in my view. I remember one member of our group, sadly now dead, who decorated her tubes with coloured plastic to match her outfit specifically to draw attention to her needs!

Sunflower Lanyards now hi-jacked by the rumour mongers

It appears that some people are now spreading rumours that the sunflower lanyard now signifies that the wearer has had some special injection and is now immune from Covid-19 and therefore exempt from using face coverings. I hope the population who are better informed about the true purpose of the lanyard will recognise this as fake news, and not be deterred from wearing it for the right reasons.

Visors are catching on

I am delighted to see that people are waking up to the advantages of wearing a visor rather than a face covering. They are being issued to sales staff, but people in the street are beginning to cotton on to them too. In one day I saw three examples of variations on the standard offering. There was someone sporting an improvised one like mine, anther which was attached to a spectacles frame so easy to whip on and off. The most sophisticated was sported by a sales assistant out on a fag break wearing one that was hinged and could be flipped up out of the way.

The sunflower lanyard – uses and abuses

About a year ago this green lanyard with sunflowers on it was introduced to signify a hidden disability such as asthma, hearing impairment, mental health difficulties, and such like. Staff at transport hubs such as airports and stations should spot it and quietly come along to offer help. I have used mine occasionally as it is handy to hold my bus pass in the pocket with a sign on the reverse asking people to remove their face mask so that I can understand them.

However it can be abused. I was shocked to see someone in the supermarket earnestly trying to persuade the shoppers that it is not necessary to wear a face covering at all. (No doubt this was a conspiracy theorist who believes Covid-19 is all an elaborate hoax so that our basic human freedoms can be taken away. I respect their right to their views, but I wish they would not try to be so evangelistic.) What was more shocking was this person was telling shoppers to go to the information desk and ask for a Sunflower Lanyard which will allow them to go about unmasked without hindrance. That is not what it is meant for.

Face masks on the buses

The rules about face masks get more confusing by the day. I am now obliged to wear one on the bus, but if my friend comes with me, she does not because I rely on lipreading her. But the other day she got some really frosty looks from one of the other, masked, passengers.

Ear wax – eating your way out of trouble?

There has been a rash of adverts for ways of removing ear wax. They look extremely dubious to me, but are bound to proliferate while it is impossible to get this down in the normal way. We are told that ear wax is generated as a reaction to hearing aids. But actually I have very little trouble. My theory is that it is more a symptom of eating the wrong sort of food. I would love to get some research done into that. Meanwhile, the best way to deal with it is to soften it with a few drops of oil (any of the vegetable oils would do but olive oil is said to be the best). On of our member asked if I knew where to get hold of a dropper a.k.a pipette. Ran this to earth at Superdrug complete with a bottle for just £1.

Visors make life much more comfortable

It is easy to improvise a visor. Take a sheet of heavy grade acetate available from stationers, or feed an empty laminate pouch though the heater. Punch four holes down one long side and thread a tape through them. Total cost for materials less than £1.50. I have tried mine on the bus and it was so much easier to put on and take off since it does not tangle up with my hearing aids. It would be so good if everyone could be persuaded to wear clear visors. We would all benefit from being able to see each other’s expressions.

Face-masks for all?

In my latest foray down the town I notice that people are beginning to wear face masks. I do not dispute the right of anyone to cover their face, but have already had trouble regnising a friend when her hair is so long and I can only see her face. No doubt face masks will have to become part of our standard equipment if and when lock-down rules begin to be relaxed. But the outlook for those of us who rely on being able to see the whole face if pretty grim. I was sent a link to the National Deaf Children’s Society containing instructions on how to make a mask with a clear panel so that the mouth is visible. Well this is part of the solution, but we still need to see the whole face. The thought of droves of people wandering up and down the High Street hiding behind their masks makes me shudder, and I am sure that even people with good hearing will find it unsettling.

More deficiences of video conferencing

Feedback from members of the group suggest that video-conferencing is not as good as it should be. Hospital appointments conducted over Zoom tend to leave the hearing impaired patient more confused than a normal face-to face session. Church services via Zoom require so much concentration on what is being said, that there is little spiritual benefit.

Battling with the BBC

Battling with the BBC

This morning’s edition of the Today programme on BBC radio 4, ended with a piece by a sound engineers explaining how all of their contributors were calling in by video-conferencing or by phone, and was apologising for the deterioration in the sound quality. They even made a passing comment about how this was particularly hard for those who have hearing impairment. Yes, good of them to say that, but they don’t go far enough. Far more often I miss the opening remarks when a new voice comes on because the volume drops. OK I can turn up the volume on my hearing aids but that produces a beep, all of which distracts from what is being said. Too often I fail to catch the context and have no idea what they are actually talking about. Then the presenter comes back on at a different volume and there is more fiddling with the aids. I am sure the BBC could do moderate the volume levels. So I fired off an email to the programme, and copied to Feedback pointing out this extra difficulty. I got an automatic response. Let’s hope they take notice.

Wired in handsets get best results

I had a most bizarre, and not totally satisfactory conversation with my brother the other day. For some reason Skype allowed us to see each other but neither of us could hear what the other was saying. As he has a full set of beard and moustache he is not easy to lipread, so we talked on the phone while looking at each other! Even this was not totally satisfactory, because he uses a cordless handset, which like mobile phones, has a reduced bandwidth, so he comes over to me as being muffled. By comparison wired in handsets generally produce a much clearer sound to me, so I offered to send him my redundant corded handsets, but that did not go down particularly well.

Well-being in lock-down

The realities of lock-down are gradually sinking in, and the first pangs of isolation are becoming apparent. Now this is something that all of us with hearing impairment have to battle against, so you think we would be better prepared? Well I hope so for all our sakes. My mailbox has been flooded with advice about keeping our spirits up. The main message seems to be that it is OK to be anxious and sometimes other long-buried worries might some to the surface too. The first step is to acknowledge the fact if it is getting you down, and it often helps just to be able to talk to someone. Samaritans is a good place to unburden yourself. Their volunteers are non-judgmental and the service is totally confidential. Call them free on 116123 from any kind of phone any time of day or night. You can also talk to them by email. The NHS has useful information on most aspects of Wellbeing – just Google on NHS Wellbeing service.

Social Distancing with Hearing Aids!

So now we are all in lock-down. I am taking maximum advantage of our exercise allowances, and find people are more ready to greet you on passing or even to stop and talk. But now it becomes apparent that hearing aids are only tuned for 1 metre, not the 2 required by social distancing. I have tried turning up the volume, which usually helps, but this morning there were two thrushes having a singing match in Merrow Common Woods and completely drowned us out. In common with many hearing aid users I find that mechanical noises are picked up far more loudly than softer sounds such as speech. The sound of tree leaves in any kind of wind can be quite deafening. Turning down the volume makes it more comfortable but then you miss more of the conversation.

To Zoom or not to Zoom

Digital conferencing was one of those things I hoped we would never have to embrace in the third age, but this is rapidly becoming the only way to set eyes on our friends and family. My first taste of a Zoom session was quite encouraging. But later episodes via both Scope and Zoom were tedious and tiring. The big problem is when the picture does not keep up with the sound. For those of us relying on lipreading, this makes it very hard work to follow the conversation. It seems that the main problem is either narrow bandwidth or poor signal.

Hearing aid supplies during the pandemic

Many of us are preparing to be self-isolating, if not actually shielding, for the foreseeable future, and will be quietly stocking up on a few essentials – not panic buying of course – perish the thought! While all of us can probably manage with an elderly hearing aid or tubes that need changing, if we run out of batteries we will be completely stuck. Up at the Royal Surrey the other day I was able to get the usual allocation of one pack per hearing aid but the drop-in repairs clinic will be closed from Monday onwards. With the churches closing, the Hearing Champions will probably have to shut up shop too, so that closes another source of supplies. From now on batteries and tubes will have to be got by post. I am preparing a digest of how to order either from the NHS or from the shops and will send it round in a day or two.