Wonderful quote from Gael Hannan’s blog this week, titled “Is Our Hearing Loss Skin too Thin?” :

“In our struggles with the stigma of hearing loss, some of us for just a short time and some for a lifetime, every minor rejection related to our hearing loss, whether intended or not, can be a blow to our self-regard.  And this term has the same impact in whatever language it is delivered:

Laissez faire!   French

No importa!      Spanish

Non importa!   Italian

δεν πειράζει !   Greek

Nic nie szkodzi!   Polish

Laat maar!     Dutch

Vergiss es  (forget it) or nicht wichtig (not important)  German

Doesn’t matter!  New Zealand

But are we being over-sensitive when we hear those words?  Hearing people may think so, but I believe most people with hearing loss would agree when I say, “No, we’re not being over-sensitive. Well maybe. But even if we are, it’s tough to ignore the rejection we feel with each brush-off, each refusal to repeat what was said. When you stop us cold, it tells us you don’t value our input into what’s supposed to be a conversation.”