A few weeks ago we attended an event at Hearing Dogs for Deaf People in Saunderton. Hearing dogs is a charity close to Sally’s heart and she jumped at the chance to speak alongside Pat Snelson, an inspirational lady who suffers from severe hearing loss.
Pat used to work in the corporate world, until her hearing loss took such a toll she was forced to take early retirement. Severe hearing loss or deafness is hard to imagine, and most of us probably haven’t tried to put ourselves in the shoes of a deaf person before.
The problem with hearing loss is that it isn’t the same as deterioration of sight, where a pair of glasses or laser eye surgery can give you 20/20 vision again. Even with high tech hearing aids it can’t just correct hearing, it may only slightly improve the sounds you can hear; it is a much more complex problem.
The daily troubles that a deaf or partially hearing person experience are endless, things that you or I take for granted. The simple things like speaking on the phone to friends, family or colleagues or being woken up by our alarm clocks each morning for work.
As a communication company who give training on how to deliver a message, we really focus on the power of the voice and how we say things. The audience were able to take a step back and really listen to what it is like for someone with severe hearing loss. We ran an exercise to emphasise how much is lost in the meaning when you can’t hear the intonation which Pat then went on to elaborate.
Pat was inspirational and we continue to think of ways to support Hearing Dogs charity. We also would like to extend our offer made at the event to anyone who books a workshop for their company before the end of May 2014 quoting ‘hearing dogs’, we will donate £50 to the hearing dogs charity.
