A picture is worth a thousand words, especially for those of us who are hard-of-hearing
A 90-minute keynote
I didn’t want to be rude, but a relatively well-known person was delivering a 90-minute keynote with no visuals other than himself. I left after 45 minutes.
Why? I could see and hear that he was a good speaker. Lots of acting out his stories, lots of vocal variety. The audience was responding with laughter. But what he was talking about was falling on deaf ears – literally.
As a hearing-impaired person, much of what I “hear” depends on knowing the context of a subject. Say, for example, Disneyland. Or Fishing. Or traveling. If I know that is the subject, it is easier for me to comprehend what is being said.
It is even more comfortable for me if there is something visual for me to look at other than the person. Like pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words – especially for someone like me – a hard-of-hearing person. I met another woman at the event, who also has a cochlear implant. She complained that unless there were words or pictures on the screen, she could not understand the speakers.
I nodded in agreement.
I could not help but wonder if others in the room if perfectly honest, would have found this keynote more entertaining if there had been more to look at than the speaker?
If you were listening to a 90-minute talk (which is the length of most movies these days) would you like to have some visuals to go along with that? Hearing impaired or not, I believe most everyone benefits from meaningful images that underscore or clarify the spoken word.
One thing for sure, those of us with hearing loss a picture is indeed worth a thousand words.
