Time to dust off the cobwebs and do another post!
First of all, I want to say I hope everyone is well. Hopefully you haven't been hit too badly with any of the COVID-19 variants. I also want to say my thoughts are with those in Ukraine, fighting for their country. It is a shame that Russia has caused so much death and destruction. I can only hope that one day, the World will be united and at Peace!
Okay, I have something that I want to get off my chest right now. The thing is, as someone who is deafblind with significant sight and hearing impairments, I have my fears that one day these will deteriorate. As it stands, I still has a little bit of vision in one eye only, and some hearing which is a different degree in each ear, so I am grateful for that. I know my vision and hearing will be affected as per the normal aging process, but I also worry about any life events that may happen to me in future. I’ll tell you about a scary situation that happened to me over the Christmas period later. To help with my hearing impairment, I have Signia Pure Charge&Go 5Nx hearing aids that help me to hear not only the world around me, but also to enjoy listening to music and watching TV. Most importantly, they’re great for making or receiving phone calls on my iPhone!
Me on a phone appointment with my Audiologist
I want to make it clear here that I call myself deafblind. I wasn’t diagnosed or registered with that because my vision loss and hearing impairment were discovered at different times. I don’t have Usher’s Syndrome. My legal blindness was discovered in my first year of life but my hearing loss wasn't discovered until I was around 9 years old. In hindsight, my hearing impairment was obvious but family put a lot of my actions down to my blindness. Though discovered separately, my vision and hearing impairments are both classified as congenital, meaning present since birth.
I can use my hearing aids alone to listen to music through normal speakers in a room like everyone else, or I can connect them via Bluetooth to my iOS devices and stream music to them like they are headphones. I love being able to listen to music through speakers, but it’s always great to have the option to listen to music, podcasts or audiobooks privately through my hearing aids with ear moulds made specifically for my ears. Most of the time, the quality is great, but sometimes, for about 30 seconds or so, one hearing aid or the other will have some kind of issue that causes the sound to become garbled which I don't like. When that happens too frequently, I take them out and change to other headphones.
My Signia Pure Charge&Go hearing aids on charge
When I’m making my music, I use proper over-the-ear closed back headphones (AKG K182, for those interested) that plug into my iMac or a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface. I think wireless headphones, and my hearing aids with the right connecting device, would cause too much latency (the time it takes for sound coming from a keyboard or microphone to travel through the computer and get to the connected speakers or headphones). I sometimes use VoiceOver, macOS’s built in screen reader, and I do utilise the Zoom magnifying feature to make the screen bigger (not to be confused with the Zoom video conferencing app). Sadly, this also means that I can only keep my eye on one part of the screen at a time. Unfortunately, with magnification on, I can't turn an on-screen knob or even tweak a fader using the mouse because this causes the screen to jump all over the place and it may bring undesired effects to the music or my ears.
When it comes to the TV, I can watch it and listen like everyone else, though with some difficulty, through the TV’s speaker or sound bar. Or I can connect my hearing aids, again via Bluetooth, to a TV audio streaming box designed to work with hearing aids. The latter also gives me the power to have the volume up to my preferred level if the TV volume is too low or even muted. Since I’ve been able to watch TV with my hearing aids through that box, it has made watching TV so much more enjoyable for me. If I have to deal without my hearing aids for whatever reason (eg, if sent away for repair), watching TV just isn’t the same, as I then have to struggle to listen. I can’t lip-read or read sign language due to my blindness. I would love to learn ways that deafblind people use to communicate at some point which I think involves being more tactile. I do rely on sound a lot, for speech and music.
The Signia StreamLine TV box which enables me to the TV directly through my hearing aids.
Apart from magnification and screen readers on my devices, I do have other visual helping aids, such as 2 10x magnifying glasses, which come in handy if I don’t have my phone on me, which I can use as a magnifying tool also. I have a white cane to help me get around when I’m out and about. When I forget to take it with me, I feel lost and uncertain, even if I’m with family who can guide and tell me when a step is coming. My white cane has very much become a tool I rely heavily on.
This brings me to the reason I wanted to do this post.
More to follow so stay tuned for Part 2...
