I wanted to try the deep listening exercise with my brother at the beach to compare our experiences as he is partially deaf (he can only hear above 45 decibels with hearing aids). Initially I was thinking about combining both of our observations into a score so that it would be a visual representation of our individual experiences, showing the differences in what we were able to listen to. I was imaginig how our percieved sounds would appear in visual form in comparison to each other.
I found that in doing this, it was very fustrating for my brother as he couldn't hear much apart from the sea because of the way hearing aids work. Whereas I have practiced listening to and isolating sounds, Twm wasn't able to do that. Hearing aids only amplify everything around you so seperating out the sounds was a very tricky task for him, he found that the sound of the sea overpowered every other sound around us. Also, without hearing aids, hardly any sounds were audible.
Twm's account:
"When I was at the beach I didn't realise how many sounds I couldn't hear due to my deafness. I could constantly hear the loud waves sound overpowering all the other sounds, now and again I would maybe hear a few seagulls or someone walking over the pebbles. I'd never thought about how much I couldn't hear until I was sat with my sister and she would say 'did you just hear that?' And I would be oblivious to the sound that was made"