Deaf Girl In Ibiza! ☀️☀️☀️

So, as many of you know. I went on a girly holiday with one of my best friends, Chloe. It was my first holiday abroad without my parents. Most 20 year olds would be excited for the independence. Instead, I was pretty nervous as my friend had never been abroad before and therefore it was more pressure for me to lead us through the airport etc. As you can imagine trying to listen to things in a busy airport is a NIGHTMARE because of my deafness! Myself and my friend decided that it would be best if she was 'the ears' and answered any questions and I led us through the airports as I was familiar with the environment. It worked well! A great team we are! 

Fast forward to Ibiza. It was lovely! Really really hot! The locals were friendly but hard to understand! The hotel workers all had Spanish accents too, some Spanish people we came across, I was able to understand and others... Well, I won't go there! So frustrating! Accents and me do not go well together! 

We spent most of the holiday chilling on the beach or by the pool. It was nice and there was little pressure as we relaxed. Although, one particular day, we decided to visit the water park which was "around the corner" as we were told! I reckon it was a good 3 or 4 miles I would say! Not good! The rep was very vague with directions, so we had to ask the locals for directions... THAT is where my friend came in. I felt helpless standing there, but there was nothing I could do about it. I simply couldn't understand their accents!

The water park was fun, regardless of not hearing anything! We went on this big slide where people race down and the lifeguard blows a whistle which signals when to go... Who came last? ME! Oops! I had to watch the lifeguard but obviously I wouldn't hear the whistle as I am pretty deaf without my hearing aids. My friend decided to tap my leg when the whistle went the next time. I was still late letting go of the bar, but hey! I had fun even though I lost each time! Haha! 

As we got tired we decided to head back. My hair was still wet so I couldn't really put my hearing aids in as I didn't want to risk them getting damp. So I let my hair dry. Only problem was, we had to walk back to the hotel. Quite a challange crossing the roads I must admit! I relied completely on my vision when crossing roads. I'm lucky to be alive I reckon! The roads out in Spain are nothing like England. The people driving them certainly aren't! Zebra crossings for example, most of the time people stop and let you cross. Not one single person stopped! It was a nightmare crossing roads! I had to grab on to my friend and we had to run whilst I was looking all around me frantically. Haha! Probably looked bonkers. But it's better than getting hit by a car isn't it! It's safe to say, I never want to experience that again! Phew! 

The hotel was lovely. The only let down I must say, was the fact that we had to wait for 8 hours for our room! Pretty stressful when you've just been travelling and just want to lay down on your bed. Nightmare! It was frustrating for myself as I kept complaining as they said "your room will be ready in 1 hour" and I went back each hour and it still wasn't ready. I then complained as it got ridiculous, the receptionist lacked basic English and ME, well I lacked hearing and couldn't understand half of what he said! Nightmare! ... We got there eventually! ... 8 hours of waiting! 

The holiday went by quickly and soon came to an end and it was time to board the plane. We went with Thomas Cook. Only thing I could fault them for is their TV screens. I have tweeted them regarding this. I think that their screenings should have subtitles on. I didn't actually have any headphones on me. But that wouldn't do much for me as I rely heavily on subtitles. There were some things that I wanted to watch on the TV but couldn't, because there were no subtitles. Whether or whether i didn't have headphones. I think all flights should have subtitled screenings to make them inclusive. 

Anyone with questions or comments, feel free to ask me anything! I'm interested to hear! 

Louise x

A trip to the public hairdressers!

As I promised, I would write this post about my trip to the hairdressers.

Pretty much all my life we've had family appointments to the hairdressers and driven out to this lady's house to cut our hair (she has a cabin in her garden). Before her, we had a mobile hairdresser come to our house. It wasn't until recently that I struggled to get an appointment (me being a girl I really needed my roots touching up! - Yep, I'm not a natural blonde I'm afraid!) So yeah, I'm quite impatient and couldn't wait 4 weeks, so I booked an appointment at the local hairdressers.

I'm not too keen on public hairdressers. I don't hate them, I'm just not used to the environment and find it hard to hear sometimes. It is completely different from my own house or the cabin in our hairdresser's garden! This time I went by myself as my Mum was working. I know that sounds really bad as I'm 20 years old and rely on Mum. I have to be honest, my confidence going to new environments is quite low. I often rely on my Mum, my boyfriend or my friends to come with me and help me out with something. This time I had to go by myself.

Luckily for me, the guy who cut and coloured my hair happened to have a brother who was deaf! Brilliant! It was difficult at some points to have a conversation, because obviously he was behind me and I had to look in the mirror to lip read him. It is actually quite difficult from a distance.  Especially as he often walked out of view of the mirror. Also, I was sat right by the door and because it was a hot day, they propped the door open. The hairdressers was also situated by a busy road. As you can imagine, every time a car drove past...ahhhh!  Haha!

Apart from all of that, it was generally ok and not so daunting as what I thought it would be. I would definitely go back in future and book the guy who did my hair that day! I'm very happy with it too :-)

I just wanted to write this post to raise awareness of how difficult and daunting it can be for a severely deaf individual to do simple things, such as going to the hairdressers. I rely a lot on other people most occasions, I know as a 20 year old people would judge me for that, but I am improving in confidence. Two great examples, are going to the hairdressers by myself and having the confidence to explain my hearing to them and travelling on public transport by myself now which is difficult at points (train announcements, buses etc.) It will take time for my confidence to develop, but I will get there one day!

Has anyone had any similar experiences? :-)

 

My day trip to the zoo!

I thought it would be nice to write about one of my days out with my boyfriend last week.

I have not been to the zoo for years, so as you can imagine, I was quite excited myself! I love the zoo. It is a shame that I do not go as often as I would like. So here we are...

As it happens, at the moment I am writing an essay at University about "accessibility to zoos for pupils in education with a hearing impairment" (my chosen topic). Basically, I am writing a research proposal (I do not actually carry it out though!). So this visit came in good time! Anyway... you won't want me babbling on about my BORING University work. So ignore that!

I thought it would be nice to write about how my experience as a severely deaf individual was...
I was actually very impressed!
I'm not 100% sure if there was vocal announcements, I don't think so!
I was very impressed particularly because pretty much everything was visual. There was a lot of signage which was great!
My boyfriend has been to the zoo a few times this year, so I'm sure he was familiar with his surroundings and knew where most things were... we still relied on the map though!

As a severely deaf individual I am very reliant on my eyes, I can easily get distracted visually by different things around me! I found myself reading a lot of the signage on the walls and around the zoo! It was so interesting!

I loved each area of the zoo and how in most areas, facts about each animal was written on the wall for visitors to read. I wonder if my boyfriend got frustrated at me for stopping all the time to read things! Haha! He was excited himself, bless him!

I must admit, due to it being half term, the zoo was PACKED! It was a shame because there were so many people about! But it was still a lovely day! We fed a giraffe, goats and an elephant too, so I was happy! Haha!

I don't think I could fault the day in terms of accessibility for one like myself. I was generally pleased.