Author Archives: joannedyer

Each May, Better Hearing & Speech Month (BHSM) provides an opportunity to raise awareness about hearing loss and communication disorders. HLAA-WA would like to use BHSM 2022, as an occasion to communicate with elected officials, educating them about hearing loss. … Continue reading →

High ceilings, clattering shopping carts, and chattering people can make grocery stores challenging places to hear. But hearing loops change all that, making communication with employees and customers with hearing loss easy and fast. The Grocery Outlet in Springfield, Oregon, now … Continue reading →

Written by John Waldo Many of us with hearing loss need captioning to enjoy a movie. Federal and Washington State disability laws have responded by requiring theaters to provide individual closed-caption viewing devices, which enable us to access the captions … Continue reading →

Many people are unaware of relationship between hearing loss and dementia, or how hearing loss treatment may help some people with dementia. Dementia symptoms often mimic hearing loss symptoms—in fact, hearing loss is sometimes misdiagnosed as dementia. Hearing loss can … Continue reading →

This proposal has had a convoluted history and continues to be challenging.  As most readers will recall, HB 1047 was introduced in 2021 but never got a hearing.  It would have mandated private insurance to cover hearing aids, etc., for … Continue reading →