Hearing Loss is not just for the Elderly

I was watching television the other day when a seemingly harmless commercial came on. It was for the Hamilton Captel, a captioned telephone service I learned about several months ago. The idea is enticing to me as my hearing has made it harder for me to understand people on the phone lately. I was hoping there was something similar for my cell phone. Unfortunately, after doing some research, I discovered the Captel service is unique to Sprint cellphones right now. My service provider is Verizon. I hadn't thought about Captel much since until the commercial appeared on my TV screen.

The 30-second spot for Captel, which I've now seen a number of times much to my dismay, left me really upset. The commercial shows a grandmother using the phone to talk to her grandson. For someone who is hard-of-hearing and not in the stereotypical age group, I couldn't overlook the message it was sending to viewers. Every time I have had to reveal to a customer service person, a professor, a boss or a new acquaintance that I have hearing loss, I am always met with a surprised look. I am not what anyone would think of when asked to describe a hard-of-hearing person. This commercial is broadcasting the misnomer that HOH means old to millions. Nothing good can come of this for the millions of young people like me with compromised hearing.

I know I am not alone in feeling the occasional shame or embarrassment for having a disability believed to be reserved for the elderly. It took me years to even acknowledge that I had an issue and that it might be worthwhile letting those around me know about my hearing loss. Instead, I tried to blend in with my peers and compensate for my disability. It would have been markedly easier to grow up hard-of-hearing if the stereotype hadn't always lurked in the shadows.

I wonder, as more and more people of all age groups are diagnosed with hearing loss, whether the stereotype will fade away. I doubt it but one can only hope. It would be a relief to me and so many like me to not be met with such incredulity and disbelief each and every time we reveal ourselves as hard-of-hearing.

I'm tempted to write to the company and point out that they're excluding a large untapped market by advertising their technology only to the elderly. I'm just not sure what impact such a letter might have because as it stands, it's true that young people are still in the minority in the HOH community. I'm still, by several decades, the youngest member of my local HOH group. Maybe I should just do it anyway?