“You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” -‘The Help,’ Kathryn Stockett I am proud to call Minda and Stephanie my friends. Both are highly educated, caring women who love their families. Like me, my friends are also lipreading moms. When we gathered last week for a captioned showing of the movie The Help, … Continue reading
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Can You Help Me Count My Lost Decibels?
Are you like me: not deaf, but close to it? Every year, I head to the audiologist for a hearing test. Ninety-five percent of the time, the result is the same: more hearing decibels lost. Eleven years ago when I was diagnosed with progressive hearing loss, each ear tested at 20 percent hearing loss. The … Continue reading
Why Lipreading Mom Can’t Have Her Cake and Eat It Too
For 40 days, I have kept my mouth from swallowing the following things: caffeine, white sugar, and meat. Have I become vegetarian just to say “Ah, look at healthy me”? Let’s start with Lipreading Mom’s lifelong addiction to all things sugary sweet. Candy and pre-sweetened cereal were my go-to foods since the time I could … Continue reading
Guess What My Hearing Aids Heard?
I decided to take a daytime walk by myself along a wooded nature trail. Pretty risky in this day and age for a woman to stroll solo, I must admit. It was one of those busy family weekends when all I craved was two hours of solitude. So I turned to my hubby and pleaded. … Continue reading
Lipreading Mom’s Petition for Equal Access
If you could write a letter you knew would be read and followed through by a business’ Person in Power (PiP) who is sensitive to your hearing loss, what would you write? Feel free to use the following letter, but be sure to change any reference to yours truly. Dear PiP, I am a hard of … Continue reading
The Only Whispers I Can Hear
Would life be better if I could hear better? Would I notice the subtle differences in people’s voices, or the tones used in their speech? Or be able to hear the door bell ring or the microwave beep, or the wall clock tick? Or distinguish instantly who is calling me by listening to voice, not … Continue reading
Do Hearing Aids Belong in the Gym?
A few weeks ago, Lipreading Mom got her rear off the couch and headed to the gym. Entering the workout center after the long hiatus made me feel naked. I’d left two items from my wardrobe behind: my ear buds and hearing aids. While fellow gym goers suited up for an hour of elliptical skiing, … Continue reading
Mom Goes to Press for Captions
It never ceases to amaze me how strong moms raising special needs children are. This morning, my local newspaper ran an editorial by a mom infuriated by the lack of captioned movies at local theaters. Read the entire Captioning Editorial. A portion of the editorial is also included at the end of my post. Her words, which captivated me … Continue reading
How to Strike Up a ‘Deaf’ Conversation
It’s sad but true. I’ve observed friends, family and strangers with perfect hearing reluctant to talk to someone who is Deaf. I’ve seen this happen in restaurants, libraries, the post office and church. Something Lipreading Mom has committed to doing is to initiate an ASL* conversation with people I don’t know. These are people I … Continue reading
Lipreading Mom Wants Captions!
Well, it’s about time. As I’ve written about on this blog before, I’m among the thousands of Deaf and hard of hearing moviegoers fed up with not being able to understand movie dialogue. Now a group is sueing Cinemark theatres for lack of captioned movies. This is a theater chain that hasn’t yet embraced captioning technology … Continue reading
