As readers of my blog will have read, I have got a new pair of digital hearing aids last week.
Being deaf from birth, and with my deafness increasing, I did not realise how noisy the world is and what a load of crap people listen to!
I don't want to hear the computer keyboards clicking - what is the point of that! The vacuum cleaner is sheer torture. The washing machine makes this really boring noise - what to I want to listen to that for? The wheelchair lift on the van vibrates constantly, why do I want to hear that? I'd rather sit listening to nothing and concentrate on driving that have than din in the background!
All I want to hear is people talking to me, but even then, people talk such utter drivel that 90% of it is not worth listening to!
Frankly, I'd rather remain deaf and use my hearing aids selectively to hear what I want to hear, rather than this meaningless crescendo of pollution that appears to surround us that non-hearing impaired people call "normal hearing".
That's the answer, turn the bloody things off and wait until people tap me on the shoulder. If they look remotely intelligent and look as though they have something worthwhile to listen to, switch back on.
Just a thought; I wonder if listening to this crap is the reason why most non-hearing impaired people are so stupid?
Monday 27 August 2007
Monday 20 August 2007
Doctors Receptionists - Update
Following the difficulty that I had booking an appointment for Alison to see a female doctor at her GP's surgery I thought I'd update this blog with the result:
Apart from the receptionist pulling a funny face, why I really could not comprehend, I am pleased to report that there was not a problem. The doctor had simply relocated herself to a consulting room downstairs.
Why was this reasonable adjustment such an issue for the receptionist last week.
This just proves that the thing that is the real disabling factor is often just in other peoples minds and has nothing to do with our impairments.
Apart from the receptionist pulling a funny face, why I really could not comprehend, I am pleased to report that there was not a problem. The doctor had simply relocated herself to a consulting room downstairs.
Why was this reasonable adjustment such an issue for the receptionist last week.
This just proves that the thing that is the real disabling factor is often just in other peoples minds and has nothing to do with our impairments.
Friday 17 August 2007
Digital Hearing Aids
It has only taken 2 years almost to the date (2nd August 2005) for Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to issue me with a pair of digital hearing aids after I lost my analogue one that I had since the beginning of time, well 20 years actually.
I fully expected to be dragged on a hurdle o the main entrance to Richmond House by one of the Secretary of State for Health’s minions. Hanged by the neck for a short time or until almost dead. Disembowelled, emasculated, and my genitalia and entrails burned before my eyes (not nice), before finally being beheaded and my body divided into four parts for this heinous crime.
Instead they have given me a pair of shiny new digital hearing aids.
Are they any better than the old analogue ones people ask? Well, yes they actually are!
The new hearing aids do pick up a wider range of sound and the sound quality is certainly better. Also they do not give me so much feedback (high-pitched squealing should) and I do not get a headache that I used to get when I wore the old one for more than a couple of hours.
Another nice touch is that they appear to automatically switch to the induction coupler on my phone.
Having only had them for 24 hours now they certainly seem to be a vast improvement over the old one, but it is early days.
Watch this space to see how they go…………
Parking a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle
I drove over to Cheltenham and parked our wheelchair accessible vehicle at the rear of a roadside disabled parking bay. I purposely parked at the rear space as we have a wheelchair lift fitted to the rear of our van and this requires a 3 metre gap to allow access (the van has a large sticker on the tailgate informing other motorists that there is a wheelchair lift fitted and that we need 3 metres clearance).
The road behind this disabled parking bay had a double yellow line painted on it and so I thought that no-one would possibly park behind us.
Wrong!
On returning to the van I found that some idiot had parked ½ a metre from my rear bumper, thus completely blocking access to our van.
What is wrong with people, can they not read? Do they not know how long 3 metres is?
Why is there never a traffic warden there when you want one?
We had to wait until this non-disabled idiot returned to his car and when I pointed out to him that he had blocked out access he merely chugged his shoulders. I had great difficulty resisting the urge to rip his door mirror off and beating him with it!
I am often amazed at the mentality of the non-disabled when it comes to parking. I can park in on an empty street where the kerb-side is covered with yellow paint and come back to find a whole line of non-disabled drivers have parked there as though my parking permit somehow covers their cars too.
I cannot understand why they park in clearly designated disabled parking bays and what is so attractive about wheelchair accessible toilets that they prefer to use them to their own?
I have often thought that it would be nice if the Department of Transport would crush cars of non-disabled people who park in designated parking bays in the same way that they crush cars of people who do not have a current tax disc on their windscreen – and deliver the crushed vehicle back to the offending motorist!
The road behind this disabled parking bay had a double yellow line painted on it and so I thought that no-one would possibly park behind us.
Wrong!
On returning to the van I found that some idiot had parked ½ a metre from my rear bumper, thus completely blocking access to our van.
What is wrong with people, can they not read? Do they not know how long 3 metres is?
Why is there never a traffic warden there when you want one?
We had to wait until this non-disabled idiot returned to his car and when I pointed out to him that he had blocked out access he merely chugged his shoulders. I had great difficulty resisting the urge to rip his door mirror off and beating him with it!
I am often amazed at the mentality of the non-disabled when it comes to parking. I can park in on an empty street where the kerb-side is covered with yellow paint and come back to find a whole line of non-disabled drivers have parked there as though my parking permit somehow covers their cars too.
I cannot understand why they park in clearly designated disabled parking bays and what is so attractive about wheelchair accessible toilets that they prefer to use them to their own?
I have often thought that it would be nice if the Department of Transport would crush cars of non-disabled people who park in designated parking bays in the same way that they crush cars of people who do not have a current tax disc on their windscreen – and deliver the crushed vehicle back to the offending motorist!
Why are Doctor’s Receptionists so rude?
Why are Doctor’s Receptionists so rude? Is this on their Job Description and Personal Specification?
Yesterday my partner, Alison, asked me to phone her Doctor’s Surgery to book an appointment for her to see a specific female doctor (she was at work and was unable to do it herself).
Before I proceed with this posting, I feel that it is important that readers understand that I have both hearing and speech impairments.
The receptionist answered the phone and I asked if it was possible to make an appointment with for Alison to see Dr M. “Is the appointment for you?” she asked,“No it is for Alison” (I have a deep voice and could not really be mistaken for a woman on the phone).
I could not understand what she said next, and I explained that I was deaf and asked her to repeat it and again I could not understand it and repeated my request for to speak slowly and clearly.
This time I understood the question and we agreed a time and date.
Then she said that she had no-one by my partner’s name on the register and she spelled out the name that she had input. Again I did not understand it and asked her to speak slowly and clearly.
She then spelt it out with a condemning slowness. I then realised that she had not heard me correctly, corrected her and she found Alison’s file on the computer system.Then I heard her say, again very condescendingly, “Now we are getting somewhere!”
As the readers of this blog will appreciate, by this time I was getting more than a little pissed off by this time.
The Receptionist then said; “You do realise that Dr M’s office is upstairs”, so I assumed that she had read on her VDU that Alison is a wheelchair user.
I pointed out to this woman that Alison is a wheelchair user and that she has seen Dr M in a downstairs room before.
Reply; “Oh, I don’t know about that!”
We will have to see what happens when Alison goes along to the surgery next Monday.
But why are these Receptionists not trained to communicate effectively and why are they so rude?
Why has the only female doctor in this surgery got an office upstairs?
Finally, why is it so difficult for a female wheelchair user to get an appointment to see a female doctor?
I am certain that non-disabled women would not put up with such treatment.
Yesterday my partner, Alison, asked me to phone her Doctor’s Surgery to book an appointment for her to see a specific female doctor (she was at work and was unable to do it herself).
Before I proceed with this posting, I feel that it is important that readers understand that I have both hearing and speech impairments.
The receptionist answered the phone and I asked if it was possible to make an appointment with for Alison to see Dr M. “Is the appointment for you?” she asked,“No it is for Alison” (I have a deep voice and could not really be mistaken for a woman on the phone).
I could not understand what she said next, and I explained that I was deaf and asked her to repeat it and again I could not understand it and repeated my request for to speak slowly and clearly.
This time I understood the question and we agreed a time and date.
Then she said that she had no-one by my partner’s name on the register and she spelled out the name that she had input. Again I did not understand it and asked her to speak slowly and clearly.
She then spelt it out with a condemning slowness. I then realised that she had not heard me correctly, corrected her and she found Alison’s file on the computer system.Then I heard her say, again very condescendingly, “Now we are getting somewhere!”
As the readers of this blog will appreciate, by this time I was getting more than a little pissed off by this time.
The Receptionist then said; “You do realise that Dr M’s office is upstairs”, so I assumed that she had read on her VDU that Alison is a wheelchair user.
I pointed out to this woman that Alison is a wheelchair user and that she has seen Dr M in a downstairs room before.
Reply; “Oh, I don’t know about that!”
We will have to see what happens when Alison goes along to the surgery next Monday.
But why are these Receptionists not trained to communicate effectively and why are they so rude?
Why has the only female doctor in this surgery got an office upstairs?
Finally, why is it so difficult for a female wheelchair user to get an appointment to see a female doctor?
I am certain that non-disabled women would not put up with such treatment.
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