"Hi, my name is Jacquelyn. I live in Boston. I'm a New Yorker as living in Boston, and I've been living with hearing loss for 30, almost 34 years. 

When I was two, I had bacterial meningitis and that was when I lost the majority of my hearing. And then I lost hearing later in life as well.

 So it was actually a grandfather who noticed after I had meningitis that I wasn't localizing sound because ironically he was a hearing aid distributor. So it was on his radar that people with meningitis do have a hearing loss as an after effect. So a couple of months after I had meningitis I was in the hospital for two weeks.

I was very sick at the time. And then a couple of months later he noticed I wasn't localizing sound. So I got my hearing tested and I had a significant loss on my left in my left ear and my right ear also had hearing loss. Was severe to profound on my left and a moderate loss on my right.

 So I immediately was enrolled in a preschool for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. 

My second hearing loss just happened. And so I feel more of a need now than ever to tell my story and to support other hard of hearing people. Because I don't know, there's just not, you can never get enough support.

It's a really, it's a disenfranchised group in society because it's like, Oh you look like you're hearing and you function as hearing, so we're going to treat you like you're hearing .And you have needs that are not in alignment with the hearing, with what a heard hearing person needs.

I need people, I need to be able to read lips and for people that face me when they're talking to me and. The list is endless. I have so many needs of the hard of hearing person. I am an advocate and ally and I do, I love telling my story whenever I can. So thank you so much for having me on your podcast."