Deaf Awareness Week: “My hearing loss makes me more determined”
For Claire Hutchins-Lee, who’s 40, and works as a data specialist for Oxfordshire County Council, hearing impairment is part of everyday life.
Claire uses a bone conducting headset for calls, switches on the transcription option when on a MS Teams call and will try to book a quieter part of the office when she’s not working from home.
She also wears a hearing aid with Bluetooth connectivity that even allows her to listen to music if she’s not having a conversation.
But seven years ago, when Claire was struggling to hear her young son talk, things were very different. It was only after several GP appointments, hospital tests and specialist referrals, that she was diagnosed with partial hearing loss, and fitted with her first hearing aid and in-ear mould.
Claire said: “Leaving the hospital with my hearing aid on for the first time was really strange and, to be honest, a little disorientating.
“It took me about a month to get used to wearing it and training my brain to block out the background noise and focus on the conversation.
“One thing I didn’t anticipate when wearing it, was how tired it made me feel, because of the extra energy and concentration spent filtering out sounds I didn’t need to hear.”
Claire initially struggled with the way people reacted to finding out she used a hearing aid.
She said: “Very few people noticed I wore one, because my hair was long, but when they did or I mentioned it in conversation, there was a lot of surprise with people saying they didn’t realise I had a ‘problem’.
“As a result, I was a little bit shy about drawing attention to it.”
Claire also found significant challenges at work, particularly struggling in a noisy office environment, due to the extra concentration needed to block out background noise and focus on the conversations she needed to hear.
Claire said: “I regularly ended working days in the office with a headache and feeling dizzy and disorientated from the amount of sound my brain had processed.
“It may sound odd to someone who doesn’t have hearing issues, but it is entirely possible to be overwhelmed by too many different sounds, all being amplified.”
Seven years on and with the support of Oxfordshire County Council, Claire has now found innovative solutions to support her both at home and in the workplace.
The first step was being provided with improved technology. After further tests in 2021, Claire was told her hearing had further deteriorated with specialists recommending a different type of hearing aid to suit her new level of hearing impairment.
Claire said: “The new hearing aid is a million times better suited to me and my hearing loss and I really like it. It reduces the background noise, has better sound conduction and lots of geeky Bluetooth features. It felt like going from the dark ages into the 21st century!”
She also grew in confidence, telling more people about her hearing loss, including young people at her scout group to help them understand more about the challenges people face.
Claire credits, her line manager at Oxfordshire County Council, Mark Hopping, for the support he’s shown her.
She said: “Mark made it clear that if there was anything I needed to help me do my job, I only needed to ask. He’s also given me the confidence to talk openly about my hearing issues and challenge any negative stereotypes I come across.
“Oxfordshire County Council has changed a lot in the time I have worked here and so have the attitudes of staff and the public. I feel that the council is very accepting and supportive of staff with disabilities and it makes me proud to work for it.”
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