Our February meeting was lively

Our speaker for the evening was Andrienne Read who spoke about deaf awareness. Andrienne became hard of hearing when she about nine years old and consequently her school days were difficult as her teachers thought she was not listening properly. After leaving school she went to lip reading classes and everything fell into place, her confidence grew and she went on to study at university and she now teaches lip reading to the deaf and hard of hearing. Andrienne talked to us about the difficulties the hard of hearing face in everyday life. Many people think that if a person uses a hearing aid, that's fine and their problem is solved but wearing a hearing aid causes other difficulties. They have problems in crowded rooms when several people are talking at once, if you do not talk face to face with them they may not be able to tell what you are saying. Using a telephone and mobile phone is also difficult together with people not talking clearly. The talk was very interesting and made us more aware of the problems faced by the hard of hearing. Andrienne was an excellent speaker, her talk was amusing and informative on a very important subject.