Did You Catch That? Welcoming Persons with Hearing Loss

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Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live(Isaiah 55:3a)

This mandate is to hear. I want to live.
What if my ears cannot hear?

My child, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings (Proverbs 4:20.)

I can lean toward you with full attention; but if I cannot hear you –.

Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak (Deuteronomy 32:1a.)

Will you avoid speaking should you think I am not listening?

The hearing ear and the seeing eye — the Lord has made them both (Proverbs 20:12.)

Who made the unseeing eye and the non-hearing ear?

My ear has heard and understood it (Job 13:1b.)

I wish.

Such is a conceivable litany of the hearing-challenged. Communication is what a church is about. Consider your response upon learning that the crux of your sermon was missed. Weigh your frustration when someone fails to catch what you are saying the first or second time you speak. You tuck away the rest of the conversation for later. Now ponder the patient energy required for that individual to listen to any sermon or engage in dialogue.

For a mutually fair, adequate exchange, phone hearing- challenged persons using voice relay. A human go-between transmits what you say then reads the typed response. Include the TDD number in your church directory and encourage its use.

Kari greeted her pastor, “I feel like a thanksgiving song. Today, I knew what was happening.” One of three worshipers to benefit when our rural church of 200 members hired an interpreter for the deaf to sign twice a month, Kari added, “Now, I feel more comfortable in church. I understand the choir’s songs and what you say.”

As worship leaders, we can learn several words in American Sign Language. At minimum, engage an interpreter for family baptisms, confirmations, and weddings. Rather than a distraction, signing is a beautiful, enjoyable addition to the worship environment. However, few churches have such access, and signing is not universal among deaf persons.

We have additional resources. Use the following check list to review a video tape of your worship service:

• Do you face the congregation directly whenever speaking?
• Do you hold your head up when praying?
• Is your speech clear?
• Do you enunciate word endings?

• Do you avoid dropping your voice at the end of sentences?
• If male, do you keep a beard or mustache well-trimmed?
• How expressive is your face as you speak?

When worship leaders optimize communication strategies, some with hearing challenges can follow worship without an interpreter. A colleague with a 55 percent hearing loss moves closer to her congregation during announcements. She repeats information offered.

“There is a difference between understanding what someone is saying,” she says, “and hearing. I may hear the words, but I don’t understand what they are.”

If an amplification system is so faulty that even the hearing-able sigh, consider how little hearing-challenged persons can participate. Older sound systems that emphasize bass tones were designed for the male voice. With a good quality system having an adequate mix, listeners need not strain both to hear and to understand.

Ask what works best. Hearing capacities vary. Encourage experimenting with seat location. One worshiper, accustomed to sitting beneath a wall speaker, hears better one pew back. Is lighting sufficient for lip-reading? Place photocopied sermons, choral anthems, and other special materials on the narthex table.

Talk directly to deaf persons, not through someone else. They will ask if they missed something. “Rather than instinctively slow down and speak up when I do not catch what you say,” one person says, “talk to me normal. Speak clearly. When you repeat, use the same words. I can tell a lot from facial expression. When you tell me something you are enthusiastic about, show me the feeling.”

Hearing challenges precipitate exclusion. Include the hard-of-hearing in worship even should their speech be unclear. Duplicate parts in short scripture readings for the voice choir.

Anyone with differences struggles with self-image. With a distinction as subtle as the angle of a smile, we can dismiss persons as invalid (both meanings), or we can affirm their whole being. Hearing-challenged persons might enter church feeling world-isolated; however, when no longer also worship-isolated, they abandon frustration at once.

With the affirmation of her wholeness that grew from a worship environment that removes barriers, no wonder Kari emerged from worship feeling like a thanksgiving song. She had experienced for herself Christ’s first response to those unable to listen, actually or symbolically, with their ears: “[A]nd I would heal them” (See Matthew 13:15-16.)

Unbounded enthusiasm is borne of a similarly graceful attitude when a barrier is removed. Let us name a fifth attribute of ability, high-spirited “abandon.”

Dallas A. Brauninger. First published in EMPHASIS: A Preaching Journal. 2000-2001 Series Theme: Welcome-ability. March-April, 2001, Column 5. Used with permission of the publisher.