Hearing Loss as a Social Problem: A Study of Hearing-impaired Spouses and Their Hearing Partners
This article describes how hearing-impaired persons and their partners experience and manage hearing loss in the context of their conjugal relationships. Based on in-depth interviews and being together with hearing-impaired persons and their partners, it argues that the social implications of hearing loss are associated with the temporal aspects of conversational exchange. A more nuanced understanding of the strategies hearing-impaired people and their partners employ to manage interactional complications can help to improve care and support for people affected by hearing loss.