Losing my hearing was scary and wrecked my social life
should be provision for accessibility for those with audio disability. “I appreciate it’s complicated so we’re working with the UK Noise Association, the European Federation of Hard of Hearing and I’m reaching out to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People to create an accredited kitemark that would make venues audio accessible.
“It’s a blend between noise and behaviour – if I tell staff members I’m deaf, it doesn’t mean they need to shout. I need them to face me so I can lip read, and to bring over the specials on a board and not just reel them off.” Mumbli is now crowdfunding to roll out into more venues and expand the team. It’s already meeting 84% of its £250,000 target. Twelve years after his hearing loss began, Marion has had six different types of hearing aids. In October he underwent surgery to have a bone conduction implant on one side that turns sound into vibration in the inner ear, and is awaiting a second operation on the other side. These should work for five to seven years, with the next option being cochlear implants. “Before the surgery I was wearing a one conduction hearing aid on a headband with two things sticking out the back – there was a point when I had that headband on that broke me a little bit,” he admits. “People were asking about it, I started wearing a cap all the time. With progressive hearing loss, every time it gets worse it’s like you’re hearing the news for the first time.
“It’s like, oh, now I need to adapt to these new levels of hearing loss, these different hearing aids where sound can be less clear, a different way of communicating. “With Mumbli, I can turn my problem into a solution. I get a lot of energy from that.”
With Mumbli, I can turn my problem into a solution