February 1, 2017

How video chat can transform relationships for people with hearing loss

As someone with single-sided hearing loss, video chat has transformed my relationships. Video chat allows you to lip-read or use sign language.
January 11, 2017
5 Tips to Help Your Frustrated Deaf Toddler Communicate

5 Tips to Help Your Deaf Toddler Communicate

While your child is building up their understanding of the world, they may be also getting used to their hearing aids or cochlear implant. It's understandable that they could become frustrated when trying to communicate.
October 24, 2016
learning sign language as a person with hearing loss

Why I’m learning sign language, as an “oral” profoundly-deaf(ie)

I'm profoundly deaf and have been since birth, but I've always communicated using oral or spoken English instead of sign language - until now.
September 6, 2016

How to Use ‘Total Communication’ When Educating Children with Hearing Loss

Educating children with hearing loss using 'total communication' strategies.
January 25, 2016

Dating with hearing loss: Date spots, cuddling and lip reading in the dark

I got inspiration for this blog post from Rikki Poynter’s video, ‘Dating While Deaf.’ For those who don’t know who Rikki is, she’s a deaf YouTuber, a massive Pikachu fan, […]
December 8, 2015

Can you read my lips?

Watch how lipreading works and how technology is advancing to to assist those with hearing loss.
November 6, 2015

19 Percent

19.1 percent. That’s the number of people with disabilities working in the US, compared to 68.2 percent without disabilities, according to United States Department of Labor’s September 2015 Disability Employment […]
October 14, 2015

Hear Haiti: Giving the gift of sound

Open Ears is following a group of Sonova team members as they head to Haiti with the Hear The World Foundation. Nerissa Davies is an audiologist with Connect Hearing in […]
October 8, 2015

Broadway show with deaf actors is ‘enlightening in its diversity’

Theater goers can attest, when one leaves a musical they often walk away with the show tunes stuck in their heads. But a new Broadway revival is leaving the opposite […]
October 4, 2015

Eloise Garland “takes over” Phonak’s Instagram

At Phonak, we are committed to fighting the stigma attached to hearing loss, to tearing down barriers for the hearing-impaired and to finding new and innovative ways to help everyone […]
September 15, 2015

Listening to Josef: A hearing aid wearer we can all relate with

As a social media community manager, I get to talk to a lot of people about their hearing loss. It’s been amazing to hear people’s stories – whether it’s a […]
September 13, 2015

Teen aims to make Californian city more hearing loss-friendly

Imagine a world where every newly constructed building would include accommodations for those with hearing loss, including acoustically-friendly designs, captioning and the latest hearing assistive technology. While it seems like […]
August 14, 2015

Never Mind, It’s Not Important

You’ve read articles about this, right? How we the hearing less don’t appreciate being told “never mind” or “it’s not important” when we’re asking for something we didn’t understand to be […]
June 23, 2015

Changing the Conversation: Design & Hearing

I have been a graphic designer for over 13 years in Chicago. I have worked with many interesting and diverse clients and never thought I would work for one “client” […]
May 4, 2015

More Phone Etiquette for the Hearing Challenged and Those that Call Them

Everyone with a hearing challenge has a phone story. I knew from my very first hearing aid that the phone was going to be a problem. The technology at the […]
April 17, 2015

Innovative “Modern Family” Episode Gets Sound Help From Phonak

Modern Family is one of my favorite shows, so moving abroad and not having access to US television stations was a bummer, until I got Apple TV and I was able […]
March 13, 2015

Talk to Me: Hearing is Not Listening

I’m a talker. Have been since my first words, or so the legend goes. Even as I became part of the “hearing lost” I didn’t stop talking. According to my […]
February 16, 2015
support for people with hearing loss

Talk To Me: Getting Along

For much of the past 37 years in which I’ve been, let’s say, “engaged in hearing loss,” I’ve played the good soldier. I reject labels like “suffering from,” and try […]
April 24, 2014

Eyes And Ears: So Different?

Since I started spending so much time thinking about hearing loss and hearing technology, one of the things I’ve obviously been thinking about it social stigma related to hearing loss. […]
April 2, 2014
social hearing aid industry

Social media and the hearing aid industry

It’s been a year since I joined Phonak and the hearing aid industry as Social Media Manager/Strategist. Previously I worked for a young, cool, and fun watch brand that was […]