What challenges have you been having during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Rimal's Perspective

I had a few days over the summer when I had to go in for work and of course, follow the social distancing and mask guidelines.  I found it difficult to wear a mask with my behind-the-ear hearing aids and my glasses. Something I found useful was to hook my mask at the back of my head instead of my ear and I just did this by using a paper clip to connect the two ends of a normal mask. 

As for school, I have had to adjust to a completely online environment. I know this is a big transition and demanded a lot more responsibility and self-regulation on my part.  Having a consistent structure and staying organized in my day has been important so that I can be productive and make time for family. Specifically, with respect to accommodations, I did reach out to one of my professors to add closed captioning to videos (because there were no PowerPoints and just faces talking) and they were happy to do this to make it easier to follow along and hear everything that was being said! I recommend using this time to understand your needs and how to advocate for yourself and mitigate problems that arise. 

Julia's Perspective

I think my biggest challenge is communicating with people on the phone or in-person with opaque masks. My solution is to email them first to try to setup an alternate meeting format. In my email to them, I would let them know that I am hard of hearing and would prefer to video call, so that I can see their facial expressions and read their lips without masks on. For instance, when I wanted to have a chat and get career advice from a university alumni, I emailed them first. This also works if you want to get to know a new friend/peer or teacher at school. If you don’t feel comfortable mentioning that you are hard of hearing, you could say you would prefer to do a video call instead of a phone call to understand and get to know them better. Thankfully, everyone I’ve spoken to was happy to do video calls. 

There was another time when I had to call tech support for my new laptop and they didn’t have online/text-based support. Although I used my ComPilot II to enable Bluetooth connection to my hearing aids, I still found it hard because some employees had voices that were difficult to understand or they spoke too quickly. Most of the time, they were able to repeat or find another way to describe something to me.  If it was too challenging, I would have my brother join the call and help me out. 

For the other challenge of hearing while people are wearing opaque masks, I usually rely on repeating, gestures and other strategies mentioned in the videos on this blog called COVID -19 Hearing Awareness and Hearing Awareness: Back to School & COVID-19. Adam offers great explanations!