Tina Childress, Educational Audiologist

Tell me about your job/career/calling. How did you get into this line of work?

I am an audiologist with my specialty being educational audiology. I work in the mainstream and residential school settings supporting students, their families and staff. This involves duties such as diagnostic hearing evaluations, working with hearing aids/cochlear implants/assistive technology, participating in IEP meetings, providing informational workshops on how to work with students with hearing loss and being a resource to families.

I got into this field by accident…I actually first went to college to become a computer engineer (hence, my love for all things gadgety) but didn’t feel it would be a good fit. I decided to take an elective that had nothing to do with engineering and it ended up being Sign Language. That class got me into the Speech and Hearing Science Building and introduced me to the world of Audiology. I loved the incorporation of my sign language skills, my passion for helping others, the science of hearing and use of technology into one career. Little did I know how ironic it would be that I would become an audiologist…

What is the best part of your job, career, calling?

Paying it forward! With my personal experiences as an audiologist who was late-deafened and is now a bilateral cochlear implant recipient, I have gone through various degrees of hearing loss, used hearing aids then cochlear implants, and have gone through the stages of grieving my hearing self. I feel like I can reach out to students and families and give them a glimpse of what’s POSSIBLE, not impossible. I have a passion for teaching, too, and am addicted to providing perhaps complex and technical information in an easy-to-understand and practical format whether that be in the form of a workshop, blog post or sharing my favorite links on the Internet.

What are some of the challenges?

Meetings with lots of people and listening in noisy situations are always hard situations. I compensate by either using effective communication strategies (e.g., going to a quiet place), using assistive technology or using sign language.

I also get frustrated with lack of appropriate access to such places as a classroom, the workplace, captioning on the Internet, live theater or movies. It also peeves me when people think that one cookie-cutter solution is the right thing for ALL people with hearing loss.

What was it like becoming deaf?

Becoming deaf was like being on a roller coaster. Because my loss was rapidly progressive (I lost all of my hearing over a course of nine months), I never knew if I would wake up to a “good” hearing day or a “bad” one. After a while, they were all “bad”. Along the way, I have been surrounded by amazing people, like my co-workers and my family, who have taken my communication needs into account and make sure that I have access. My then-boyfriend-now-hubby took that first sign language class with me and we’ve been signing ever since! He was, and continues to be, my ears in a variety of situations.

When I reached completely profound hearing loss, I realized that all of my communication depended on visual information – lipreading, sign language, text, etc. It was at that point that I decided to get my first cochlear implant…I didn’t want to miss anything! I decided to become a bilateral recipient five years later. I do very well with my cochlear implants and it’s always a testimony to the technology when someone sees me talking on my cellphone and then comes up to me later and says, “What?!? You’re DEAF?!? I never would have known!” Granted, I still have days when I need to get my CI program tweaked or I struggle in very noisy environments, but for the most part, I appreciate being able to navigate between the deaf/Deaf and hearing worlds. My motto is “It doesn’t matter HOW you communicate, just THAT you communicate!”

I’ve also come to the realization that my identity is not merely dictated by my audiogram – it’s situational. When I am sitting at a restaurant with my Deaf friends, signing in ASL with voice off…I am Deaf. In the mornings as I’m blow drying my hair and my five-year old is trying to tell me something and my cochlear implants aren’t on yet…I am deaf. When I’m at a meeting and three people are talking at the same time and I’m trying to follow the conversation…I am hard of hearing. As I talk with my mom on my cellphone about my upcoming visit…I am hearing. I am not one of these identities (Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing, hearing). I am all of them.

What advice would you give a deaf/HH person who is looking for a job, career or calling like yours?

Being an audiologist with hearing loss means that you will have a unique empathy for working with your patients. You have walked in their shoes! Be careful though as you talk to patients that it remains about THEM and not about YOU. You can definitely use your experiences in counseling but remember that each person has their own unique needs and abilities and what may have worked for you, may not work for someone else. They will appreciate your insight and goes a long way for establishing rapport.

Technology is your friend! Take advantage of things like FM systems in the booth or using interpreters or CART, as needed. Depending on your hearing ability, there may be some tasks that are difficult for you, like speech perception testing, but don’t be afraid to exhaust all possible ways of getting access.

Be a good example as an advocate! This may mean making sure your professors understand your listening needs or handing an FM transmitter to a presenter at a professional conference or asking someone to repeat something that you did not hear.

Explore the many facets to audiology. It’s not just about being in a booth all day – perhaps you want to do research, or focus on hearing conservation, or do aural rehabilitation.

There are others that have already paved the way! There are facebook groups for the Association of Medical Professionals with Hearing Loss (https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/amphl/) and the Association of Audiologists with Hearing Loss (https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/114874958541349/). Feel free to ask questions about things like choosing a program, getting through school and what accommodations are successful in various settings.