What should you do when talking to a person with a hearing disability?

Answer 1

You do NOT shout. Shouting increases the natural facial expression and for a deaf/deafened person this will/can be seen aggression and make it difficult or impossible to read lips and interpret sounds (if they have some hearing)

To communicate with those who are deaf or partially deaf;

Face the person do not look away or become distracted. Do so in as good a lighting area with best lighting on you as possible . Maintain eye contact and talk in a clear manner. You don not need to over emphasise words or shout as this can cause more confusion. Ensure nothing obstructs your face especially the mouth area as many will attempt to lip read even when they are only partially deafened.

Try to "talk" in an area that does not have large amounts of background sounds (difficult these days). Shops/bars and roadways are difficult to communicate with a person who has limited hearing as the background sounds block most of the voice frequencies. Maintaining a steady unrushed pattern of speech is really useful.

For a person who has partial hearing be aware of how they may (1) turn their head to bring in line their best ear (2) wear a hearing device. This is important as again raising the voice for someone who has a hearing device front of body mounted can actually hurt their ear (3) some will cup their hand behind a ear to attempt to capture sound. Noting these points will allow you to assist by speaking in their best hearing direction.

Be prepared to repeat yourself. Sometimes the phrases used are difficult to interpret and many words may have similar sounds but greatly differing meanings.

Be prepared to use simple gestures to help. Many people do not have ASL/BSL etc skills but can interpret something with gesture supported language.

Those that have never heard will often have good lip reading skills which they use well with gesture and body language. People who have suffered hearing loss later in life are not always as perficient in lip reading and gesture reading so patience is vital.

NEVER become frustrated when attempting to communicate it actually makes the situation more difficult to "read".

Answer 2

When talking to a person with a hearing disability, speak clearly and at a moderate pace. Maintain eye contact and if needed, use gestures or write down important information. Be patient and respectful towards their communication needs.