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natalyadDeaf awareness from staff makes the difference between hospital appointments being mostly-accessible and completely inaccessible (and majorly stressful).
I had a hospital appointment with an eye clinic because I was having some problems with my vision.
The consultation got off to a bad start when the Clinician insisted on the door being left open and I explained I was deaf and needed it to be closed so I could hear the consultation. Clinician's excuse was that people came in and out of consultation rooms to work. I said that was fine as long as they were quiet and closed the door behind them.
I told the Clinician that I am deafer than most people realise from my speech, hearing aids do not give me perfect hearing and that I need to lipread people to understand speech.
Despite being told I needed to lipread which requires me to look at people's faces, Clinician started doing eye tests which involved covering one of my eyes then the other while talking to me. As I could not understand her, I tried to look at her which wrecked the test. She would not explain the test in advance or give me any warning of instructions. We had to do some tests in the noisy area we'd closed the door from including going into another room (which partner closed door to) where it was made dark. Again no advance explanation while I could lipread so I did more things incorrectly because I could not understand the instructions.
Throughout the consultation I repeatedly asked Clinician to speak louder and more slowly which she did not do. She got very grumpy with me whenever I asked her to repeat herself. I couldn't hear her well, but I could see the annoyed facial expression and body language. At the end she told me my reported issues were not a part of my known-condition with clear implications that she did not think my issues were genuine. She reluctantly agreed to refer me to see one of the doctors -- but that referral never arrived.
It was another 4 years before I got an explanation for the vision problems - my GP referred me to one of the doctors Clinician should have referred me to!
I had a hospital appointment with an eye clinic because I was having some problems with my vision.
The consultation got off to a bad start when the Clinician insisted on the door being left open and I explained I was deaf and needed it to be closed so I could hear the consultation. Clinician's excuse was that people came in and out of consultation rooms to work. I said that was fine as long as they were quiet and closed the door behind them.
I told the Clinician that I am deafer than most people realise from my speech, hearing aids do not give me perfect hearing and that I need to lipread people to understand speech.
Despite being told I needed to lipread which requires me to look at people's faces, Clinician started doing eye tests which involved covering one of my eyes then the other while talking to me. As I could not understand her, I tried to look at her which wrecked the test. She would not explain the test in advance or give me any warning of instructions. We had to do some tests in the noisy area we'd closed the door from including going into another room (which partner closed door to) where it was made dark. Again no advance explanation while I could lipread so I did more things incorrectly because I could not understand the instructions.
Throughout the consultation I repeatedly asked Clinician to speak louder and more slowly which she did not do. She got very grumpy with me whenever I asked her to repeat herself. I couldn't hear her well, but I could see the annoyed facial expression and body language. At the end she told me my reported issues were not a part of my known-condition with clear implications that she did not think my issues were genuine. She reluctantly agreed to refer me to see one of the doctors -- but that referral never arrived.
It was another 4 years before I got an explanation for the vision problems - my GP referred me to one of the doctors Clinician should have referred me to!
