Sometimes it seems, even in countries like Australia, that only if you have money do you have the right to hear.

How good is lip reading? Can people really read lips without any sound and understand what is being said?

The first ‘hearing aids’ if you could call them that, were hearing trumpets. They were large and cumbersome - like the trumpet on early gramophones. We've come a long way since then :-)

famous hard of hearing people, famous deaf people, famous deaf musicians, famous deaf politicians

There are many situations where we need different kinds of hearing and therefore different solutions. I thought I’d look at some of these.

Many countries have a Hearing Awareness Week (or a Deaf Awareness Week)– a week in which individuals, organisations and companies seek to raise awareness about hearing health. I wondered what it is for.

Accepting our loss we can minimise the emotional toll on ourselves and put us one more back in control regaining some of the independence we feel we had lost.

We all know that listening is the best way to create understanding. When you are down, if you have a friend you can talk to about your problems this simple act of having someone listen often takes away the stress.

"Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me". I know it’s intended to teach children not to listen, to take the sting out of someone calling them names, but we all know that names stigmatise and never more those who have some kind of disability or difference.

One extremely conspicuous sign of deafness is when someone’s speech is too loud, way louder than those who are round them or the situation and condition demands. But is this always indicative of deafness?