Update: In 9 months: 751K views; 14K Likes & 937 Comments!! “What You Don’t Know About Hearing Aids” (YouTube Link) Posted on March 2, 2024
21K views in just 24 hours! Dr. Juliëtte Sterkens’ TEDxOshkosh Talk has been seen by almost 1000 viewers every hour between March 2 and March 3, World Hearing Day 2024.
“What You Don’t Know About Hearing Aids” is an 18-minute master class on the challenges of hearing loss – at any degree or stage of awareness. Dr. Sterkens: “I am excited to introduce my TEDx talk on “What You Don’t Know About Hearing Aids.” I poured my heart and soul into this talk. My message: Hearing aids do not restore hearing to normal, but terrific technologies, workarounds, and techniques exist to help anyone with hearing loss, with or without hearing aids, to hear better.
I have been on a mission for the last 15 years to educate consumers on the benefits of hearing loops. I have given hundreds of lectures to hearing care professionals and audiology students on the importance of recommending telecoils in the hearing aids they prescribe and demonstrating how they work. I have traveled thousands of miles and listened to hundreds of moving stories about day-to-day struggles to improve communication, shared by those who attended my (virtual) lectures.
Consumers are hungry for honest information on how to best deal with their hearing loss and how to tackle the difficulties they experience even when using the latest and greatest technology in hearing aids or cochlear implants.
I hope my TEDx talk will raise awareness of the benefits of assistive listening technologies, especially hearing loops. I also want people to know about hearing aids with built-in telecoils, how to use Bluetooth hearing aid accessories, and how to adopt proven communication strategies to thrive with their hearing loss.”
Note: Juliëtte Sterkens, AuD, is an audiologist with forty years of experience in hearing rehabilitation turned consumer advocate with the Hearing Loss Association of America. She has published numerous articles and lectured internationally to consumers, audiologists, hearing instrument specialists, and venue operators. Topics include living well with hearing loss, hearing accessibility, and hearing loops. Her work has led to hundreds of hearing loop installations in Wisconsin. She has received numerous awards for her efforts, including the American Academy of Audiology Presidential Award. She serves on the board of HEAR in the Fox Cities, a non-profit that helps pay for hearing aids for children in North-East Wisconsin.