Challenges Faced by Adolescents Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: Then and Now

Abstract Adolescents who are Deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) face challenges beyond those typically encountered by teenagers. DHH teens have higher rates of social isolation and peer victimization compared with peers with typical hearing. Additionally, they need to develop self-advocacy skills to enhance accessibility across educational, employment, and social environments. Research studies often do not fully capture the full experience of adolescents who are DHH, or how living with hearing loss as a teenager has changed over time. This qualitative study explores the academic and social experiences during high school from the perspective of adults with hearing loss as they reflect on the past and current high school students as they reflect on their present situations. Participants included four adults (M = 48.8 years) and nine adolescents (M = 16.0 years) with congenital hearing loss, all of whom used hearing technology (i.e., hearing aid, cochlear implant) in high school. Participants responded in writing to prompts about challenges they encountered while in high school. Qualitative analysis was conducted to identify themes across essays. Peer interactions emerged as the most common struggle, regardless of generation, with self-advocacy relative to school technology and communication strategies as the second most common theme. Personal perspectives of having a hearing loss as an adolescent highlight the need for parents, clinical and educational professionals, and community programs to look beyond the medical and technology needs of those with hearing loss to understand the impact that a childhood diagnosis of DHH has on the whole person.