Living with hearing impairment
Written by Andrew Smart, Head of Science & Research
One of the big issues of the moment is the recognition that disability comes in many forms and that people can be struggling with a non-visible disability and need space or support in their environment but not be brave enough to ask for it or feel that they need to justify their position to others. Following a recent medical condition, I find that I need to sit down on buses or tube journeys and I’m now not able to get up to always offer my seat to people as I would have done in the past because it will have a debilitating impact on me.
My son got me a London Transport ‘Please offer me a seat’ badge – which I confess I do now wear when I’m up in London – even though I feel a bit uncomfortable about it. Mental illness can be another big challenge – its not obvious if someone is struggling with close contact or ‘masking’ and why should it be up to them to flag that to us? As individuals we should be more tolerant of other people and rather than feeling ‘put upon’, should always think – “That could be a friend or relative with a problem and we should give people credit”.
I’m hearing impaired and this can cause a number of problems because it’s not something that’s visible. If I was partially sighted or blind and carried a stick people would be aware but hearing aids are small and not obvious but also don’t always work as they should! I wanted to take a moment to outline some of the situations that hearing impaired people find challenging – my deafness is not complete and I’m sure that these little problems I face are nothing compared to the daily problems faced by someone who is profoundly deaf. Just ask yourself, have you ever been in a meeting where the chair asked if there was anyone who needed their lack of hearing to be taken into consideration?
As someone who has had ongoing hearing impairment for around 25 years and whose hearing continues to decline, the importance of hearing aids is significant. At the moment my hearing aids have stopped working and I’m using an old set, and the loss of volume and loss of some frequencies make it worse than ever to communicate in some environments. This happens when your hearing aids run out of charge or the batteries ‘die’. Even with hearing aids hearing impaired people often struggle in environments most people would consider normal. Here are some of the challenges I face regularly:
A notable situation is communicating in a car where you can’t see the person who is speaking face to face, and where road or engine noise is often amplified. Working in the field can be very frustrating because often bird song is lost- in my case I have significant loss of high frequency (thanks to Cornell’s Merlin App for helping me out with bird survey information!). In a work environment I am ok as I generally work online and so I control the volume and block out external noises through the use of headphones but surprisingly I find lip-reading isn’t so easy online.
The worst situation in work environments are meetings and conference workshops or, my worst nightmare – a working meal! I get to most meetings or conferences early to look at the room and work out the best place to sit to get a balanced sound and to avoid being close to any hard surfaces that will bounce sound back at me. Also, in meetings it’s helpful to be able to see most of the participants – never a problem when I was the chair but these days that tends not to be the case. One of the tricks I have developed is to take a moment at the very start to remove a hearing aid and change a battery in front of everyone – even if it didn’t need changing – just to signpost the fact that I’m hearing impaired.
Conference workshops are always a struggle – breakout groups – with several groups in the same space and all having different conversations – are a real challenge. I have been known to ask if my group can move to an alternative space, which is often surprisingly difficult. The nightmare working meal; everyone talking at tables all around and knives and forks ‘chinking’ away on plates; I tend to aim to enjoy the meal and catch up with people afterward.
It’s not that people are difficult or thoughtless, most of the time they are just not aware of an issue, which I always find odd as for many people hearing loss is something they can expect to suffer from at some point as they age and most people will have an elderly relative with hearing impairment.
Socially there are unforeseen problems, struggling in venues with low lighting because you can’t see peoples faces clearly and I always laugh to myself when someone whispers a comment to me about someone or something because they might as well have said nothing – I am now definitely always the last to know rumour or gossip – which is fine as I never believe it anyway!
It’s often a struggle to hear when people speak really quickly or are saying things you don’t necessarily expect; waiters and waitresses are an example of this, I often rely on the people I’m with to tell me what we’ve been told at restaurant tables. Surprisingly many announcements in public spaces, particularly airports, are also unclear; though not, I should say, on the trains which tend to be really good.
One of the things I find particularly hard personally is that picking up lyrics in new songs is a challenge and after years of working full and part-time in record shops and in music venues, I tend to drift back to bands and songs that I know from my past rather than being able to really embrace new songs. Some might argue that too many festivals and concerts in the late 70s and 80s might be part of the problem now!
What we are doing at Froglife to support those with disabilities
- Recognising and valuing lived experience across the organisation: With over 30% of Froglife staff identifying as having a disability or long-term health condition, we actively celebrate the depth of insight this brings. Staff blogs—such as the powerful reflection on hearing impairment and non-visible disabilities—help raise awareness, challenge assumptions, and foster greater empathy within the team.
- Embedding support from day one: As part of our staff induction process, we explicitly ask new colleagues about any access needs or reasonable adjustments they may require. This ensures that support for physical, sensory, mental-health or non-visible disabilities is planned proactively rather than reactively, mirroring the blog’s call for environments where people do not feel pressured to justify their needs.
- Regularly checking in on wellbeing and changing needs: Through our structured staff supervision process, line managers ask whether there have been any changes to health, wellbeing, or access requirements. This recognises that disabilities—such as fluctuating hearing loss, long-term conditions or impacts of recent medical issues—may change over time, and staff should feel safe to request additional support.
- Raising awareness of non-visible disabilities through shared stories: The blog highlights how people with hearing impairments or other unseen conditions often struggle in environments others might consider “normal.” By sharing these experiences, Froglife encourages colleagues to be more aware of issues like background noise, seating arrangements, lip-reading needs, sensory overload, or communication barriers—promoting considerate behaviour in meetings, workshops, and fieldwork.
- Promoting a culture of empathy, patience and inclusivity: Inspired by messages in the blog—such as the need for tolerance, the challenges of masking, and the importance of understanding hidden difficulties—Froglife promotes an organisational culture where staff give one another the benefit of the doubt and ensure everyone can participate fully, whether in workplace discussions, conferences, or social settings.