Story? Hearing New Zealand World Hearing Day Fun

Stick with us

Hearing New Zealand had been asked by a lot of people of all ages about ways they could identify themselves to others so that they could have their communications needs met more simply. An easy way to do this and start the conversation about hearing and masks was to use our stickers. The stickers provide an easy and fun way for our HOH/Deaf community to visually communicate their communication needs to the people they are interacting with.

The stickers are also a way for our community of identifying and support each other, and to show our identities.

Also, we are happy for people to use the Stick with Us mask stickers imagery in any way they like that supports the Hard of Hearing (HOH)/Deaf community as long as it's ethical and not for profit. If people want to use it for profit they will need to contact us.

With Covid19 many of our HOH people's compensations they use have been taken away. Not only do masks stop lipreading they also distort sound and decrease the decibel level of the speech (8-20 decibels from memory), this is why accommodations and assistive technology support are so important.

If our hearing aids have remote microphone functionality it really helps for friends, family, teachers, employers, etc, to use the dongle (hearing aid microphone) to help support us. If they don't have this function then we will need people to use pen and paper, text/messaging, or live transcribe/captioning functions, otherwise, you will find yourself having to repeat things a lot.

Many of the Covid19 changes can also be used to support us with the accommodations and assistive technology that are now more available and much more accurate than they have been in the past.

For example, meetings with recording and streaming mean that people can now have live captioning/transcription turned on on the platforms (not 100 percent accurate but again it really helps support our community), giving us visual access to what is being said.

Easy access to apps for live transcriptions on phones is also helpful as if we have them on our phones we can read what you are saying.

Access to information in written form be it notes and or meeting materials becomes even more important - please send that information through if you want to support us well.

Supports, technology, and wifi access need to be made widely to the Hard of Hearing/Deaf, as well access to NZSL.

White Cat Campaign - check your hearing

The World Health Organtision's hearWHO app is FREE hearing test you can download on your phone that tests your hearing and saves the results of your tests over time so you can take care of your hearing health, and get help when you need it.

The QR code provided in the flyer links straight to the World Health Organization's FREE hearWHO app that lets people test and track their own hearing over time. Everyone should check their hearing from time to time and the app allows us all to do this, especially important during Covid which has reduced people's access to hearing health professionals due to health restrictions. We see the hearWHO app as an amazing way for people to look after their own hearing health.

Hearing Heroes

Also would love to stay in contact about our Hearing Heroes campaign as we are looking for Hearing Heroes across the country! Ideally we are after 90 Hearing Heroes for our 90th Birthday.

We are happy for people to use the Stick with Us mask stickers imagery in any way they like that supports the Hard of Hearing (HOH)/Deaf community as long as it's ethical and not for profit. If people want to use it for profit they will need to contact us at Hearing New Zealand.

We are aiming for a fun and interesting year during interesting times.

www.hearing.org.nz

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