“If I can overcome a hearing impairment, I can overcome anything.”

Andrew Chaney, 22, a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s renowned film department, is originally from Brookfield, Wis. He works as an assistant manager at Hollywood Video and blogs on experimental filmmaking at alackofnarrative.blogspot.com. He is also hard of hearing.

Chaney spoke with A&E Editor Diego Costa.

What is exactly your hearing condition? Since when did you have it?

My hearing condition has been diagnosed since I was in the first grade, 6 years old. Although the doctors have never been sure what caused it, they believe it was the result of when I had pneumonia as a child, which destroyed the tiny nerve hairs in my cochlea that transmit sound to my brain. I still hear low-pitched sounds like normal, but I fail to hear the higher pitches, which includes objects like cell phones, birds or fire alarms.

When and how did you find out about it?

Originally, the doctors were unsure if I was hearing impaired or not and at first thought that I was simply inattentive. Because of the difficulty in administrating tests to young children, it wasn’t until I failed a standard hearing test in the first grade that they officially diagnosed me as hearing impaired. They also noticed a large number of speech impediments in my speech, which is another way that they diagnosed my condition.

Does it get worse or better with time, or does it stay the same?

I have what is considered a degenerative condition. When I was in the third grade, age 8, I had a special patch surgically placed on my left ear. While it did not improve my hearing, it stabilized it for the most part. However, my hearing has naturally been decreasing with age, meaning that while I may lose the same amount of hearing as other people, because I have less of it to begin with, it’s a larger loss overall.

How was it to grow up without being able to hear as much as other people?

It was difficult at times, having to try various cumbersome apparatuses that were considered the best technology at the time. People were often curious as to what exactly I was wearing, what exactly was wrong with me. However, I was lucky enough to have teachers and aides that were dedicated to assimilating me into normal classroom surroundings.

What is your favorite sound?

Probably the sound of guitar. I can hear most of the music being played on them.

What is a bad part about having a hearing condition that most people wouldn't think of?

I sometimes hear from people close to me that people can sometimes get the perception that I was “arrogant” as a result of my not responding to something they said to me. They were unaware of my condition, and so felt that I was ignoring them or being rude.

What is a good part about being hearing impaired?

Being able to sleep easily, not being affected in movie theaters by annoying cell phone ring tones. It can be quite easy for me to concentrate on certain tasks such as reading or writing, due to the fact that my hearing impairment provides somewhat of my own little world, in which sounds are blocked out. I also feel that, through my hearing impairment, it has brought me into contact with so many wonderful individuals from the hearing impairment community and support staff.

How does it affect your relationship with the world?

I feel as if sometimes I’m a little introverted for fear of having an embarrassing exchange with someone, in which I didn’t hear something they said. Often times, I feel detached from the world, in the sense that I see everyone conversing or having a good time — especially in loud public places — and I am unable to follow the conversation around me. However, I also think it gives me a unique way of viewing the world. I often spend more time observing people’s body languages, lip-reading, or any kind of oral indicator as to what they’re referring to.

How does it affect your love for music?

There is quite a lot I don’t actually hear in musical tracks. When I took up learning to play keyboards a few years back, I noticed I couldn’t hear about the 10 or 15 highest-pitched keys on the keyboard. But I can, for the most part, hear the rhythm and accompanying parts in music. I don’t follow the lyrics too much, as I can’t really understand them. I guess as a result I end up liking a lot of bands with bad lyrics but good-sounding music.

You must have to say "What?" "Excuse me," and "Can you repeat that?" more often than most people. How do you deal with it?

It is quite hard sometimes, but I usually find a way to get around it. When you get to around the second or third repeat, I start to feel quite self-conscious, but I often just come out and tell people if I can’t hear what they’re saying. I deal with customers every day at my job, and one of the positives of that everyday interaction is that I’ve found effective ways to communicate with people whom I can’t understand by having them write it down or some other easy way around it.

When you think back, how would your life have been different if you could have always heard?

I sometimes feel as if my social development would be quite different had I been able to converse with people normally. When you’re quite young, there isn’t a lot of different types of conversations that you have, but as you get older, people begin to develop different ways to converse, and you could say I developed differently. However, I feel that it’s made me stronger as a result, because I know if I can overcome a hearing impairment, I can overcome anything. I also feel like it’s given me a unique point of view in my filmmaking, and I hope to one day really tell the world what it is like to be considered a “disabled” person.

What kinds of things do you value a lot and you think others, who hear 100 percent, may not value as much?

I value the ability to see things with my eyes more than anything. I’ve often talked to people who had no disabilities, and they sort of equate blindness and deafness, or being hearing impaired and vision impaired as two different, but equally, debilitating conditions. But through not being able to hear as other people can, I’ve learned to trust my eyes more than anything, as that’s my only way to interpret the world around me.

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