Understand · Adapt · Connect
schase@HearingEachOtherBook.com
A forthcoming book by Sherry Chase
Welcome to Hearing Each Other
For those with hearing loss and everyone else.
Soon to be a book — Hearing Each Other: Revealing the Hearing Loss Experience Nobody Talks About with a Frustration-Free Approach to Communication Between the Hard of Hearing and the Healthy Hearing and more.
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Written for
About me & the book
Thirty years of bilateral, progressive hearing loss — and a book about the experience nobody talks about.
I have had bilateral, progressive hearing loss for 30 years. I am functionally deaf without my hearing aids.
When I realized that I was withdrawing and isolating (just as my hard of hearing grandmother had done many years before) I decided to write a book about the hidden experience of hearing loss. My goal is to offer support and connection for the hard of hearing and to educate the healthy hearing.
The scope of the book has grown to include:
And more.
Please join the list — sharing your email helps prove there are thousands of readers waiting for Hearing Each Other.
Inside the book
Three key topics
Responding to what's likely on your mind, the book moves from naming the experience to a practical approach the hard of hearing and the healthy hearing can share.
The experience
The approach
Your questions
Exercise Five
(for hard of hearing folks)
This exercise is especially for readers with hearing loss. It was inspired by my recollection of a harmless prank I played many years ago when I feigned a Russian accent with a handsome salesman in a shoe store. He thought I was exotic. I left the store without giving him my phone number.
On a day when you will have frequent contact with others, pick an accent to use in all of your interactions, all day. It can be any accent, southern, British, French, Jamaican, Russian, whatever you like. Use the accent every time you speak. Write down the time you start and each time you forget and revert to your customary manner of speech. Note how it feels to use this new way to speak. Is it exhausting? Annoying? How long were you able to speak with the accent before you forgot to use it? Did you tire of trying and quit the exercise before the end of the day?
The exercise is intended to demonstrate that it is effortful to change the way we speak. The next time you ask someone to change their manner of speech so you can hear them better, remember how challenging that is and try not to take offense if they don’t maintain it. Certainly, healthy hearing people can train themselves, with our encouragement, to speak so that their efforts to be understood are more successful. The book will identify ways that the healthy hearing can make strategic choices to be heard and understood, often without the need for repetition.
Who it's for
The book & blog
This book and blog are for people with hearing loss and the healthy-hearing people in their personal and professional lives.
Put words to the fatigue, the bluffing, and the quiet isolation, and ask for what you need without apology.
Speaking & workshops
I am passionate about helping folks with hearing loss to connect with each other, advocate for themselves and find support when needed. I am equally focused on raising the awareness of people with healthy hearing to understand the challenges we encounter and how to successfully relate to us.
Two workshops, a presentation & the Deep Dive
An advocacy workshop designed to make the audiology experience more patient-centered. It identifies seven areas of disconnect in audiology practice and offers patient-initiated solutions to each deficiency.
For audiology patients, audiologists & studentsMy healthy hearing husband and I present an approach to moving from frustration to connection by strengthening the relationship bond. We re-enact a 13-year-old conversation, invite the audience to critique the relationships of some of my interviewees, and finish with a questionnaire for each partner to discover the extent of their alignment with the other’s perspective. The concluding strategies are applicable in less personal relationships as well.
For couples, close family members & good friendsIt describes what it’s like to have hearing loss, debunks common misconceptions, and identifies strategies for communication. Accommodations and legal requirements are also discussed.
For large or small medical, business & student groupsAn optional addition entailing a weekend-long experience of near total deafness (using ear plugs) as one accomplishes a series of prescribed tasks without the benefit of clear hearing, followed by a group debrief session.
A weekend-long immersive experienceBusiness, medical and senior groups
Hearing loss groups
In person or through Zoom
Ready to bring this conversation to your group?
Book a Speaking EngagementReal experiences
In their words
Help the healthy hearing people in your personal and professional life understand what it's like to have hearing loss.
My writing is informed by my interviews with 70 people with hearing loss. I am grateful for their willingness to share their stories. All names have been changed to protect their privacy.
I felt like I didn’t have a voice.
I interject my thoughts into a conversation and I am often wrong.
I learned that the frustration, isolation, depression and anger were normal for someone dealing with significant hearing loss.
Hearing aids do not resolve all of my hearing issues. They’re not like glasses. You don’t get restored to normal hearing.
People thought I was dumb when I didn’t respond properly.
I pretend to hear sometimes. It’s easier.
My family used to tell me that I wasn’t trying to hear hard enough.
To shut my eyes and hear clearly would be amazing.
People don’t understand that loud is too loud.
People get frustrated trying to talk to me and they just walk away.
Try an exercise
From the book
A sample of the exercises woven through the book — small experiments that build understanding between the hard of hearing and the healthy hearing.
(for hard of hearing folks)
This exercise is especially for readers with hearing loss. It was inspired by my recollection of a harmless prank I played many years ago when I feigned a Russian accent with a handsome salesman in a shoe store. He thought I was exotic. I left the store without giving him my phone number.
On a day when you will have frequent contact with others, pick an accent to use in all of your interactions, all day. It can be any accent, southern, British, French, Jamaican, Russian, whatever you like. Use the accent every time you speak. Write down the time you start and each time you forget and revert to your customary manner of speech. Note how it feels to use this new way to speak. Is it exhausting? Annoying? How long were you able to speak with the accent before you forgot to use it? Did you tire of trying and quit the exercise before the end of the day?
The exercise is intended to demonstrate that it is effortful to change the way we speak. The next time you ask someone to change their manner of speech so you can hear them better, remember how challenging that is and try not to take offense if they don’t maintain it. Certainly, healthy hearing people can train themselves, with our encouragement, to speak so that their efforts to be understood are more successful. The book will identify ways that the healthy hearing can make strategic choices to be heard and understood, often without the need for repetition.
The blog
From the blog
Articles and exercises on living and communicating with hearing loss.
November 4, 2026
9 actions for making audiology practice more patient-/client-centered.
Read moreResources
Support, information and camaraderie
In all those years of audiologist appointments, no one ever told me there were hearing loss organizations that offer coping and advocacy support, information and camaraderie. Back then, before the internet, it never occurred to me to search for outside assistance. All three of these organizations are wonderful. I'm proud to say I belong to all of them.
ALDA
HLAA
Say What Club
Contact
Whether you're navigating hearing loss yourself, supporting someone who is, or would like a workshop or in-service training for your team, reach out directly.
What happens next
Share a comment, a story, or a workshop request.Send a message.
Share your story.
Inquire about speaking.
