Lindsey Simonin is 18 years old and was born with a hearing disability that was not discovered until she was two years of age. She wears two hearing aids, but her hearing is only 50% in both ears and she has struggled in school because she can’t hear what the teachers are saying.
Lindsey applied to the Help America Hear Program to request two new hearing aids. The program provides ReSound hearing aids free of charge to people with limited financial resources.
“The challenge I face as a hearing impaired student is trying to catch conversation and read lips,” she says. “With some people I can easily read their lips but with others it can be really difficult. People tell me it’s amazing that I can read lips; I tell them it can be easy but not always. I have many people ask me what it is like to be a hearing impaired person and I just tell them it is similar to having headphones on when people are trying to talk to you. While the music is on loud, sometimes you don’t hear them.”
When Lindsey was in middle school, she had to have an interpreter and she learned sign language. While in the classroom however, she had to listen to the teacher and read his or her lips while also watching the interpreter do sign language. It wasn’t easy since she had to focus on both her teacher and her interpreter. She decided to listen to the teacher instead and read his or her lips because it was easier for her and she wouldn’t get behind. By the end of her 8th grade year, she told the school that she didn’t need an interpreter because she wanted to learn things on her own and try to do her best without help.
Through the Help America Hear Program, ReSound recently worked with Freeman Hearing Center in Joplin, MO, to fit Lindsey with two new ReSound hearing aids. The hearing aids and the fitting services were provided free of charge.
Lindsey says that the new hearing aids will help her with her social goals. She is currently in the Health Sciences program at Crowder College and is earning hours at the Medicalodge working with the elderly. “I do expect my life to change with these new hearing aids because I will be able to hear better, keep up on conversations with people, work better with my co-workers, and help myself obtain my goal to be an Ultrasound Technician,” she says. .