7 GIFs that perfectly explain traveling with hearing loss

It’s that time of year again, the time for holiday travel. 

An expected 28.5 million people will travel on airlines in the U.S. during the 12-day Thanksgiving air-travel period. 

As a profoundly deaf person, I’ve had my fair share of travel experiences. Here are seven situations I have found myself in perfectly summed up by GIFs!

1. When deaf people can’t hear announcements

We never know if the tannoy announcements are important or not, we can’t always hear them! Just hope that we don’t miss our train or plane!

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2. When the assistant tries to speak to you and you tell them you’re deaf

It’s not all easy when you try to explain your hearing loss, sometimes they’re sympathetic, and other times they just don’t know how to react!

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3. When they offer a deaf passenger a wheelchair…

I’ve been offered a wheelchair at airports. Like how? Really… last time I recall, my legs work perfectly fine? I thought it was only my ears that are broken!

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4. When they find out you’re deaf and they attempt to sign something

Yeah… just don’t. If you know sign language that’s great. If you’ve never learned it before, waving your arms around in an attempt to sign is like trying to speak a foreign language, but babbling nonsense!

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5. When you can get travel discount because of deafness! 

Everyone loves discounts! I travel a lot as I’m in a long distance relationship and there’s nothing better than having a cheaper rate. Perks of being deaf!

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6. When everyone on your platform disappears…

Have I missed an announcement? Am I in the right place? I’ve experienced this all too much!

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7. When you can sleep anywhere in silence!

There’s nothing better than being able to switch off your hearing aids on loud public transport and catch a few z’s… when everyone around you struggles to sleep with the noise!

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Read more: 24 hours of traveling with hearing loss

I’d love to hear your travel experiences, please comment them below!

• Author Details

Author Details

Ellie Parfitt

Ellie was born profoundly deaf, uses verbal communication, lipreads and wears Phonak Sky Q hearing aids. She is currently learning British Sign Language. Ellie hasn’t let her disability stand in the way and embraces every new challenge. Her deafness didn’t prevent her from achieving major accomplishments in her life, such as excelling in her education, previously working as a Marketing Executive and now as an Events Coordinator for a deaf organization, as well as blogging for Hearing Like Me. She is passionate about deaf awareness, campaigning for equality and helping others through her personal blog as Deafie Blogger.