2024-03-24 CBC Radio- On The Coast with Gloria Macrenko - Hearing Loss Exhibit
4:21PM Mar 24, 2025
Speakers:
Gloria M.
Keywords:
Hearing loss
hearing health
auditory pathway
hearing devices
Canadian Hard of Hearing Association
hearing protection
invisible disability
stigma
accessible BC Act
ASL interpreting
captioning services
medical appointments
hearing loss simulator
workplace safety
hearing aids.
Of our five senses, hearing is one some take for granted, but an exhibit in Maple Ridge is putting it at the forefront. The show was called the way we hear it. It runs until the end of the month at the Albion community center. Now to speak more about this, we're joined by Jessica namila. She is with the Canadian heart of hearing associations BC chapter, which is behind the exhibit. Jessica is also a pediatric audiologist based in Vernon. Hello Jessica.
Hi there. Thanks for having me. Nice to have you with us. Tell me
please, what's the goal of the exhibit,
the exhibit as well. It's the first of its kind, and the goal is to educate the general public of all ages about hearing health, hearing loss and our deaf and hard of hearing community.
What will people be able to hear and do in the exhibit?
Well, there are a variety of different displays. You there's this really big art installation that people can walk through as if you're walking through the auditory pathway. So you can walk through the ear canal, or you'll see different types of ear racks in the middle ear, where the ear bones are and the inner ear, which is really exciting for kids, especially, you can learn about hearing protection. You can actually hear what different types and degrees of hearing loss sound like through our hearing loss simulator, which was developed by science world. And you can see a variety of different hearing devices, such as hearing aids and cochlear implants. You can learn more about the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association, yeah, there's a lot of stuff. Absolutely
sounds like there are a lot of choices. Let's talk a little bit, please, about how prevalent hearing loss is in British Columbia.
So yeah, hearing loss is prevalent and it isn't it is not just an older person's problem. In BC alone, there are 100 babies born with hearing loss each year, which is why we have the BC Early Hearing Program here to support these children and their families. But also Stats Canada shows that around 51% of Canadians that are in the 50 to 59 age category will have a hearing loss. And this number actually increases as we get older.
You know, so many of us wear glasses and don't think anything of it, but certainly correct me if I'm wrong. But when it comes to stigma around hearing loss, where is it coming from?
Yeah, this is, I think, a complicated topic, topic, when we talk about hearing loss, first of all, hearing loss is known to be an invisible disability, meaning that it is not something that can be easily seen. And often, the person who has a hearing loss needs to do a lot of self efficacy in order to have their needs actually met, even if they are wearing hearing aids, so it's invisible. And then secondly, there is not enough awareness out there yet about hearing health and hearing loss, even in a hospital setting, for example, there's not a lot of awareness about how to best communicate with someone who's deaf or hard of hearing. And I think, you know, we live in an ableist society, and this attaches certain stigmas to having a hearing loss. For example, research shows that those with hearing loss are likely to be unemployed, and I think this is something we're actively trying to change. But then there is an internal stigma that develops for the hard of hearing person, which I think really affects the uptake of using hearing devices and getting to know their hard of hearing community. Because, you know, if you have a hearing loss, you might think things to yourself, like, I don't want to wear hearing aids because I'm too young, and this is an older person's problem, or I don't want to be seen as unintelligent, for example. So there's a couple things at play there. It's a
disability. So on a provincial level, how are people who experience hearing loss being included in the conversation around accessibility?
Yeah. So it is exciting that our province now has the accessible BC Act, which was put into legislation in 2021 and this act is here to ensure that our province is accessible for all. And within the Act, there are two. Members of the provincial accessibility committee, and within those 12 members, there's actually three members in there that are part of the deaf and hard of hearing community. There is one person who is deaf and uses sign language, there is another who is hard of hearing and another person who is deaf blind. And so they are definitely at the forefront of making legislation for our province. And
are there supports in place from the province? You know, for instance, in medical appointments?
Yeah, a lot of, I would say medical professionals don't know that this exists, but we do have the provincial language services in BC, and they provide a couple things for our community. They provide 24/7 ASL interpreting for those that are attending MSP, funded medical appointments and emergency services and those that are hard of hearing and use listening and spoken language to communicate patients or clinic clinicians can actually request captioning services for medical appointments, not emergency services yet, unfortunately, but for their medical appointments, which makes communication in these very important appointments, more accessible,
is there anything we can do to protect our hearing, any tools or tips that we can put to use?
Yeah, well, something that's kind of a little bit new in Nifty is that our cell phones, these days, they actually have a setting where the cell phone will monitor how loud your phone is, and it will actually alarm you if you are listening to sound too loud to your Phone. So that's really cool, and WorkSafe. BC, I think has done a lot of great work in making, you know, occupations more safe in the workplace. So I think wearing here hearing protection these days is becoming more of the norm as it should be.
But yeah, well, it sounds like there's a lot of things to learn at the exhibit. Thank you so much for talking to us this afternoon.
