Does anyone else where hearing aids?

5UB

Removed.....................

Savvy_Sue

Welcome! Yes, there's a few of us about, with plenty of good advice on this thread. Best advice I can give is find a lipreading class, if you possibly can: people who know what you're going through!

Hear-Hear

A hearing loss itself is not a disability. There are over 9,000,000 people in this country alone who suffer hearing loss that can be assisted, and only few of these would consider themselves "disabled". It is the effect that it has on your life that defines whether it is "disabling" or not. Savvy_Sue's link above makes really useful reading. It's a fairly long thread, but should give you plenty of ideas to help you decide whether you are "disabled".

If your hearing loss "restricts you in certain jobs", then it could be well worth your while contacting the Access To Work people, who can help with all sorts of equipment.

RazWaz

Another deaf person here, I wore hearing aids from the age of 18 months up till I was about 10 years old, then just gave up as they didn't really help (sensorineural deafness). I really recommend learning to lipread if you can't already, I pretty much rely on it now.

I-Owe-You

Welcome!

I'm deaf too - bilateral - I was diagnosed 3 years ago at 19, having had full hearing previously.

I had never labelled myself as disabled, but it appears social services and my audiologist does!

I am awarded DLA as my hearing loss if fairly profound, and I require communication assistance throughout most of the day. I also suffer with associated Meniere's disease, so my mobility is not that great....If Im honest I doubt very much you could receive support in the form of DLA for just having hearing loss (perhaps depends on how profound/how much support you need?) although your local authority should have a sensory impairment team who do a great job of installing equipment if you need it free of charge? (I have a domestic loop set up, vibrating pager system and flashing doorbell which I am very grateful for!)

Hope this helps x

dave030445

I-Owe-You wrote: »

Welcome!

I'm deaf too - bilateral - I was diagnosed 3 years ago at 19, having had full hearing previously.

I had never labelled myself as disabled, but it appears social services and my audiologist does!

I am awarded DLA as my hearing loss if fairly profound, and I require communication assistance throughout most of the day. I also suffer with associated Meniere's disease, so my mobility is not that great....If Im honest I doubt very much you could receive support in the form of DLA for just having hearing loss (perhaps depends on how profound/how much support you need?) although your local authority should have a sensory impairment team who do a great job of installing equipment if you need it free of charge? (I have a domestic loop set up, vibrating pager system and flashing doorbell which I am very grateful for!)

Hope this helps x

hi what dla do you get for your meniere's

Savvy_Sue

Could I just stress that DLA is not given for conditions, it is given for the effects of conditions.

So I-Owe-You is right, 'just' having hearing loss doesn't get you DLA.

Nor would 'just' having Meniere's, because the effects of it can vary very widely. It can be almost completely disabling, or it can be OK one day and crippling the next, or it can be 'just one of those things'.