I finally gave in and got a hearing aid—wish I had done it sooner! My wife also has hearing loss but doesn’t want one because she thinks it will make her look old. How can I convince her to stop caring what people think and just get her hearing back?
– Larry D.
You can lead a horse to water…but she’s going to have to come to this in her own time. Just like you should have gotten it sooner, it may be the same. Let her see how you’re doing, and in time, she may be ready. The reality is, because of age bias being much stronger of a force against women than men, it’s not a surprise that she thinks that she may be stigmatized or have more age bias against her. Forcing her is only going to make her more resistant.
What are her peers doing? Are they using assistive tech or are they also shunning it because they think it would elicit age bias? Ultimately, she has to find when it’s right for her, but that may mean having conversations with her friends, perhaps finding support in numbers, and discussing what their experiences are around hearing and what the positive outcomes could be from the technology.
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