Hearing Loss

As the child of a mother who migrated from hard of hearing to complete deafness, David is likewise--without his cochlear implant and hearing aid--deaf, amid a silent world. David is committed to supporting and giving voice to the 48 million Americans who are invisibly challenged by hearing loss. For his story, and related advice, see here.

A Quiet World: Living With Hearing Loss (Yale University Press, 2000) is a journal of his experiences with hearing loss, interspersed with information about the psychology of hearing and new hearing technologies.

Hearing Loop Assistive Listening

David’s avocation is advocating “hearing aid compatible assistive listening”—assistive listening that broadcasts PA system, TV, and telephone sound directly to hearing aids, thus doubling their functionality. (His own community, Holland, Michigan is a national model of such, with most of its churches and public facilities now offering this affordable technology, affordable technology. Thanks to the efforts of many other people and the Hearing Loss Association of America (see here) additional new installations are spreading the country, ranging from small venues (488 New York City subway information booths) to large (the 12,200 fixed seats of Michigan State University’s Breslin Center arena). 

For more about David's and and others' advocacy for people with hearing loss—via a transformation in American assistive listening—see here and his three dozen articles. Here are two: 

Getting people with hearing loss in the loop. (2019). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14, 29-33.

A Technological Godsend to Counter Hearing Loss
The ‘hearing loop’ is a remarkable advance, but all too hard to find in the U.S. From the Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2015

An example: Hope College hearing loops (pdf)