They That Have Ears

Radio Record, 25 March 1938, Page 9

They That Have Ears

Crusaders for the Hard of Hearing Make Radio Their Ally Special to the "Record"

by

SYLVIA

MUNROE

STOOD with a friend and watched a tui singing on an apple-tree branch. The air -was tumbled with sound. . She said slowly: "{L can see the feathers jerking on his throat and the way he throws back his head, but his song is a jumble of discords. I know the little deep roll I should hear when he fluffs his neck like that, but still I cannot hear. . "When you go walking over the fields, the silence is made up of a hundred thousand noises-the thin clashing of grass blades in the wind, the wind’s song itself, the scrape of a cricket’s legs and the hum of flying things, the muted pounding of the distant sea. . "When I go walking, I walk alone, in a silence so dead and empty it takes shape and presses its hands upon my ears and shouts and calls-yet still is silence. . . "You see, I am nearly deaf now. And it is a new, hollow world I am entering. . . ." T iy estimated by otologists that the number of hard of hearing or deafened people in New Zealand to-day stands at, roughly, 18,000. Although the nature of the affliction itself makes an accurate assessment impossible, because few of the less serious cases are ever reported, yet on the basis of otologists’ experience a | oe

alu OL COM PalisOl Wilih STatistics in other countries it is safe to say that probably nine out of every 100 New Zealanders are not in full possession of their hearing faculties, The thought is staggering, and more so when you reflect that of the percentage of hear-ing-impaired in New Zealand, an appreciable proportion are a liability rather than an asset to the community. Their productiveness, unless remedial or compensatory measures are taken, is reduced to a consider

GUIS UtTELCO ald Lidl in d Lat tor particularly important in view of the Dominion’s almost stationary population. This consideration of community is mentioned apart from the humanitarian aspect of assisting the hard of hearing and the deaf to resume normal living, but actually the two cannot be separated. The problem of restoring the hard of hearing to usefulness is primarily the problem of restoring their confidence and happiness. That is the line that has been taken by hard of hearing leagues all over the world, and during the last six years in New Zealand. The difficulty is that most people with hearing defects are sensitive about their handicap in an unusual way. They try to cover up, not by taking measures against the defect but by ignoring it. Then, because their affliction inevitably

lays them open to embarrassing blunders in social behaviour, they take refuge in a withdrawal from the world. The physical sensation of isolation which is one of the sorest trials of hearing-impairment, is made doubly terrible by the mental loneliness that follows the severance or curtailment

of normal social contacts. Never do _ Rupert Brooke’s words ring more truly than when they are applied to the hard of hearing — ‘Hach in his own obscure distress wanders in a wilderness." G OMETHING of these thoughts crossed my mind when I was talking the other day to Mrs. G. A. Hurd-Wood, Wellington, founder of the New Zealand Teague for the

Hard of Hearing in 1938 and now active in the formation of the first South Island branch in Christchurch this week. Auckland and Wellington are the other two centres. ’ A woman with a besetting purpose to bring: practical comfort to the hard of hearing in New Zealand, Mrs, HurdWood is not working blindly. She began in December, anes, to study hard-hearing achievement in Hurope and Americé and during a 15-months’ tour contacted 97 leagues. What she learnt is extensive, but ‘some points are salient. First, that lip-reading is the straightest and widest road from lost hearing to normality ; secondly, . that. the "catch ’em young" maxim applies forcibly in. this work, and the children of pre-school age must receive greater attention; thirdly, that New Zealand (Cont. on page 41.)

ATEST cause that will be pleaded through radio’s voice is that of 13,000 New Zealand hard of hearing people, whose social usefulness is limited and whose happiness is shaken by their affliction. Mrs. G. A. Hurd-Wood, Wellington, speaks with the backing of world-wide observation and experience when she comes before the microphone at Christchurch this week.

They With Ears.

(Continued from page 9). has yet many weary miles to go before it is combating to the uttermost the draining effect of hearing-impairment on the efficiency of its citizens, Purchase by the Government of more mechanical equipment for testing and encouraging hearing is one of Mrs. Hurd-Wood’s great hopes. But she knows that before very much can be done, must come a different attitude in the hard of hearing themselves and in the public generally. Hearing-impair-ment should be regarded in as logieal a light as failing eyesight or a crippled limb-an issue neither to be shirked nor forgotten. Early treatment of ear cefects have double chance Of curing: and even when cure is not possible. experience has shown time after time: that complete loss of hearing need nor incapacitate a person for any but ertain specialised occupations. By lip-reading, ‘by ‘the purchase’ of rgliable hearing aids, and by a comMon sense attitude in general, the hard ‘hearing can not ‘only regain their own peace of mind but, without fear or need of favour, they can take up positions as normal people in a normal community. That is the lesson learnt by Mrs. Hurd-Wood from her observations both in New Zealand and overseas. It is the lesson that she and the League hope to drive home sooner or later to the public mind, both through radio and every possible means. In her talk on Tuesday night from station 3YA she will be ‘telling the story of Beethoven, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other great men who triumphed over the handicap of deafness. But her thesis always is not so much the: rehabilitation: of the great as the rehabilitation. of every man,