Often with hearing loss we are presented with technology as the solutions for our problems. While I am very grateful for hearing loss technology and I believe it plays a very important role, there is quite a bit that can be done to accommodate hearing loss without technology. I have three key skills I frequently utilize to help me be successful as a person with hearing loss. They may seem very simple but they can make or break an experience for me.

• Planning a strategy. In general, I usually know when a place is going to be hard for me to hear in. For example, every gymnasium is hard to hear, or I know that I struggle to hear in most restaurants. If I know that I will be at a place where hearing is a challenge, I think it through in advance. I plan what I can do to make the situation go more smoothly. Do I need ear plugs because it will be so loud it will hurt or possibly damage my hearing? Do I need to find a menu in advance so I can familiarize myself with the options? Do I need to ask a friend to be a hearing advocate in the situation? Does the venue have an accessibility page? Can I make any recommendations in advance to simplify things? A great example would be to research restaurant photos on Google to find one with low ceilings, booths, and good lighting and ask my friends if we can eat there. If it will be hard to hear, what are the likely questions someone may ask? Do I need to plan in a hearing break to my schedule before, during, or after to help with hearing fatigue? I then make the best guesses I can to help the situation go as smoothly as possible.

• Positioning my body. Depending on the activity, I can do a lot to assist my hearing or to make hearing a much harder challenge just based on how I position my body. I believe body positioning is always a key component with hearing loss, but with single sided hearing loss it can be especially important. I find that one of the most helpful tools I have in a restaurant setting is to pick the correct chair- which is usually the head of the table or the end where no one is sitting on my deaf side. If I am walking or doing something active with a conversational partner I always want them to be on the hearing side. I will choose my seat in the car based on who I am likely to want to interact with. If I am attending a class in a professional setting I try to sit up close where I can better see for lip reading and speech cues. If I go to a music event I like to sit fairly on the left so the majority of the room my hearing ear can pick up (my right). These small adjustments can have a huge impact on how hard I have to work to understand and to be included.

• Arriving Early. I have learned that one of the best hacks is to give myself extra time. Often, it takes some extra time to work out accommodations. This is true whether I am asking an instructor to wear a remote microphone, I am picking up a captioning device at the movie theater, or I am borrowing a neck loop at a performing arts center. In each of these cases, it takes time to make the request as well as to test the technology. Arriving early makes it easier to get the correct seat and body positioning as well. I find self advocacy can be rather daunting, and adding in an element of rushing or time pressure can make it even harder. If I arrive early so I feel like I have the space to self advocate and that I can pick a good moment to ask for what I need, it can really lessen some of the advocacy burden. It gives me the opportunity to communicate anything that could be helpful with other people around me as well, such as letting the person on my deaf side know I may not hear them say something.
  

While no amount of hacks can make life the same as it was with two hearing ears, I have found these hacks to lessen my hearing loss struggles. I really appreciate what I can control with my hearing loss, and the wins I do achieve. I find that just having tasks I can accomplish to improve the situation is often very empowering.