With Derrick Coleman, the Seattle Seahawks fullback who’s legally deaf, recently storming onto our screens in a Duracell advert, the social impact of the advertising campaign is already being witnessed at a high-tech level.
After having SSD (single-sided) deafness since early childhood, film director Rik Cordero was inspired by the advert, to evaluate modern technologies that might work for his unilateral (one-sided) hearing situation.
Consumer Technology
Rik tried a well-designed 1-inch square device called the Merry ME-300 D, which looks like the iPod Shuffle. With it, he heard conversations in the car, and valued the ‘quiet’ option when environmental noise became too loud.
His conclusion: Derrick’s Duracell commercial made me realize that I shouldn’t be ashamed of SSD or feel the need to mask it with passiveness. Hearing impairment is nothing to be ashamed about, in fact it’s made me who I am.
As Rik observed, design awareness is evolving so rapidly that very soon, deaf kids will wear their hearing aids or devices as a fashion statement.
More Reading
- School With Unilateral (One-Sided) Hearing
- Teacher Question: Hearing On One Side Only
- Children with unilateral hearing may struggle in school
- Hearing Devices Double As Tiny Media Devices
- Smartphone Apps For Bluetooth Hearing-Devices
