Katherine Bouton is an advocate and educator for the deaf and hard of hearing and an award-winning writer. Her memoir, Shouting Won’t Help (2013), was named a Kirkus best nonfiction book of the year. She is also the author of Smart Hearing: Strategies, Skills and Resources for Living Better with Hearing Loss (2018).
Her blog Smart Hearing has appeared on her website since 2013. She has also blogged for Psychology Today and AARP.
A journalist by profession, Katherine worked for 22 years at The New York Times as an editor and writer. Her writing has appeared in many sections of the Times, including the Magazine, the Book Review, and Science Times. Her current writing focusses on disability and includes Making Art Accessible to All (New York Times).
She is President of the New York City Chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America. She serves on New York’s Advisory Committee for Transit Accessibility (ACTA), and is a member of the Advisory Council for the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), a branch of the National Institutes of Health.
She is a frequent speaker on hearing loss issues and speaks to both professional and hearing loss groups. She can be reached at katherinebouton@gmail.com.
Katherine Bouton: Smart Hearing 
Is Dr John Oghalai at Stanford doing the cochleoscope yet?
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Any chance of having recorded version of your books? I have some hearing loss and I can no longer read books, but I listen to them on Audible.
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I wish, but no plans so far. Thanks for your interest.
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Ms. Bouton:
Someone could volunteer to read your books into a tape recorder with 90 minute tapes or a digital voice
recorder for this gentleman. I am sure there are other visually impaired individuals who would like to
her your books via audible devices. Many programs for the visually impaired and blind have volunteers
read books and other periodicals into tape recorders or even podcasts.
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I’d be happy to help that happen but I don’t know where to start.
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Some of Katherine’s books are available for the Kindle.
Check that they have ‘text to speech’ enabled.
You should then be able to get Alexa (via an Echo Dot) to read it to you.
Some Kindles have built in audio readers.
You can also try the Kindle App however it might not work without an Audible version available.
It’s not the same as having a human reading the book but better than nothing.
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Thanks Robert Sigley. I think they’re all available as e-books. I don’t know about the “text to speech” imbed. I always thought the book had to be available as an audio book, which none of mine are.
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What are your thoughts on hearing-loss related disorders such as auditory dyslexia? This is the Mrs. Malaprop scenario with misheard words, e.g. goat is confused with ghost in a talk about Halloween costumes .
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That’s beyond my level of expertise but read Oliver Sacks on Mishearings: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/opinion/oliver-sacks-mishearings.html. There are also a couple of good books on auditory processing disorder. You can find them on Amazon by googling. One is “When the Brain Can’t Hear.” Another excellent book is by a neurologist at UCSF whose name I can’t remember right now. Can’t remember the book title either. Maybe another reader can help. Or I’ll let you know when it comes to me. I wrote about it at some length in my book “Shouting Won’t Help.”
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How do you imagine your position and decision in five to ten years?
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Not quite sure what you mean by this question.
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Wow how many American suffer from hearing.loss
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[…] Katherine Bouton in her book Shouting Won’t Help describes her tinnitus this way: “I have it easy, and in fact kind of like my tinnitus: it changes pitch from time to time, an ethereal deep outer space keening.” Silence is the paradoxical element for people with hearing impairment. External sounds are silenced by hearing loss, yet internal noise is increased. For people with normal hearing, periods of silence are a restorative measure for an overstimulated brain. […]
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Fascinating. I forgot I ever wrote that. I have had a cochlear implant in my left ear, the first ear to go deaf, since 2009. It’s very helpful and I no longer experience tinnitus.
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Wow how many American suffer from hearing.loss
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When did you get your CI? I just had mine in March right before elective surgeries stopped. It has been hard finding “normal” situations to get used to them. Besides tinnitus, do you also have Meniere’s? Which of your books do you recommend for people with a CI? Just found your post about Undone & will start to watch
Thanks!
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Hi Laura. I got my c.i. in 2009 when I was still working. It was a bad time for me all around and my job was very stressful, and I didn’t have time in those first months to practice with the c.i. But I would recommend that you do things like listen to recorded books. Listen first and then check with the written passage after each paragraph to see if you got it right. You might try TV without captions, although that’s hard because so often you can’t see the speaker’s face and there’s really no way to check. The c.i. companies all have online programs. I wrote about these a few weeks ago. I don’t have tinnitus but I had quite a struggled with vertigo. Oddly, it seems not to be hearing related — various experts including neurologists and otolaryngologists who specialize in vertigo said it was not Meniere’s and that it was probably Migraine Associated Vertigo. There’s no difference really except the name. My most recent book, Smart Hearing, is probably the best as a guide. It’s available only on Amazon as either a paperback or e-book. My first book, Shouting Wont’ Help, was a memoir of losing my hearing and my struggle to find my life again. Good luck with the c.i.
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[…] Katherine Bouton lives with hearing loss. With an impressive history at the New York Times, Bouton openly discusses the reluctance and fear of speaking publicly about hidden disability. Many may have to face judgment, misunderstanding, negativity, and/or unwarranted criticism—as well as the anxiety and pressure of these confrontations. […]
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Hi Katherine, How does your CI sound? Do you notice distortions; does it sound artificial? Or are you accustomed to the electronic hearing now as if it’s natural?
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I like the hearing I get through my c.i. I also use a hearing aid in the other ear and they complement each other.
The hearing aid is still the stronger ear.
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Hi yes,I’m deaf and asl he’s name Alan Arena alone dullsome to understand long time send work
Verb,noun.
Who,whom,whose.
What
Where
How.
Some read and write.
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I’m just plain scared; hearing loss in both ears (left worse with fluid) and tinnitus! First hearing aid thru insurance didn’t work well. Now going for more expensive Signia Pure Charge & Go 7 AX. Would love to know your thoughts. Found out about you and your books while reading an article you wrote on Helen Keller.
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Dear Jane, It’s perfectly natural to be scared. Losing your hearing is a scary thing, especially if it’s progressive and you’re not sure why. I spent decades in disbelief that no one could tell me why I was losing my hearing and how much of it I would lose.
I’ve lost most of it by now, but I’ve gained so many things that make up for it.
First is getting the right pair of hearing aids. Where-ever you’re buying them, make sure that they sell more than one brand (that they’re not an outlet for that manufacturer, in other words). If you don’t like the way you’re hearing with the aids, and if the audiologist can’t correct the programming to make them work for you, ask to try another brand. In most states you have 45 days to make up your mind. Every state has some guaranteed trying out time, the shortest is a month I think. If you are near a Costco you might check out their aids. They have hearing specialists and audiologists on staff and sell name brand aids at a big discount, as well as their own Kirkland brand.
Once you have a pair that seem to suit you, wear them all the time.
Ask people to repeat what they’ve said and if you still don’t understand, ask them to rephrase it. Practice on your own by listening to recorded books and then checking your perception of what you thought you heard with the written text. There are a lot of online auditory rehab programs — Your audiologist might be able to help.
What really helped me was finding other people with hearing loss. I belong to the Hearing Loss Association of America, which has chapters all over the country. Take a look at their website — hearingloss.org and check out their programs. My chapter, in New York City, also has a helpful website, hearinglossnyc.org. Come to one of our chapter meetings. They’re the first Tuesday of the month, 6-7:30. The schedule is posted on our website, free and open to call, and captioned. We’re meeting virtually for now and probably throughout the next year. There’s also ALDA, the Association for Late-Deafened Adults. I”m not as familiar with their programs, but I do know that they’re good.
My books, Shouting Won’t Help and Smart Hearing, would be helpful. (My second book, Living Better with Hearing Loss, is superseded by Smart Hearing — some of the same information but updated.) They’re available on Amazon, but if you don’t want to buy the books (or can’t get them at the library) read back on my blog over the years. It’s free I’ve been writing since 2012 and have probably said everything in the posts that is in the books.
Give yourself time to grieve your lost hearing and to get used to your hearing aids.
Good luck!
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Thank you- I will definitely look into your recommendations and your books. I started wearing hearing aids about 10 years ago, but unfortunately my hearing loss has worsened over the past year and I’m finding it so difficult to function with masks at work ( I work in a hospital so we’re all masked all the time). Short of carrying a sign” please speak up, I can’t hear you!!”, any thoughts or suggestions? I am always asking my coworkers to speak up but it’s hard not feeling… frustrated? Discouraged?
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Deborah, have you tried one of the smart phone live-captioning apps? I use Otter on my iPhone but Android users can use Google Live Transcribe. Dragon Dictation is another.
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There are clip-on buttons ‘out there’ saying, “Please FACE ME when you speak!” and such. . . . good luck in your work situation with masks….I’m sure it’s not easy!
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i am pretty thrilled to find this! Thank you. Just what i need.
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You’re welcome. But the thanks goes to Richard, Mary and Robin.
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22 public libraries in CA hold your book for borrowing. . . the local copy my gift to them. I will also get and give a copy to the Oakland library system, which is a very large one and has no copy (I’m in Berkeley). Other nearby counties, like Contra Costa, DO have copies.
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I misspoke, above, about # of copies etc. But I’m now buying a couple of copies to donate to the Berkeley system and the next door one. Keep up the good work. (I don’t see how to delete my erroneous post.)
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