I’ve been badly beaten twice, so far, today.
I have hyperacusis. I am autistic, so my senses have always worked a bit differently from most people. I have been chronically ill for the past few years, and it seemed to have amplified some of my senses. With this combination, I’ve ended up with a disabling sound sensitivity, as well as some kind of strobe sensitivity. My loudness discomfort level has dropped below 60db.
It’s hard to specify the prevalence of hyperacusis, first, because it’s hard to do the survey, and second, because it exists on a continuum.
It’s also worth considering Meniere’s disease, the Tullio phenomenon associated with Lyme disease, where loud noises cause a loss of balance, and so on.
Some thoughts, mostly from personal experience:
1. Individual solutions aren’t enough. I have to wear ear plugs and heavy ear protectors to go outside, as well as eye protection due to the strobe sensitivity. I can still get incapacitated by backup beepers, sirens, construction noise, the crosswalk beepers for blind people, and so on. I have ended up collapsing from the pain, in the middle of the street, when crosswalk beepers down the street, or sirens, or car horns hit me while I’m crossing the street. I have also ended up stumbling into the street when turn signals and strobe lights hit me while I’m waiting to cross the street. And they put the burden on us, to avoid being beaten and/or endangered, rather than on those doing the beatings.
2. Phones aren’t accessible. I know many offices require phones. Trying to get help with the Healthcare dot Gov site, around here, required phones, though in some other jurisdictions it didn’t. Poison control, usually, requires phones. Registering for relay services, for those of us who can’t use phones, seems to require phones. I tried several months ago and never succeeded.
3. Phones are too loud. Although they have higher volume settings for those with other hearing issues, it’s hard to find speaker phones with lower volume settings for those of us with hyperacusis. And ringers, hold muzak, etc. tend to be much louder than any conversation, so ear protection against the hold muzak can make it impossible to make out the conversation.
4. Current safety standards aren’t just not accessible, they’re downright abusive to us.
5. I understand some police forces have started using lrads, which are supposed to be even louder pain-weapons.
6. If it’s possible to replace the backup beepers, sirens, etc. with other safety signals which won’t hurt and/or endanger us, then that may benefit other people, with more typical hearing, too.
7. Current noise-pollution standards don’t stop helicopters buzzing my neighborhood at one in the morning, either.
I don’t think this society does enough to include, to help, and to stop hurting disabled people in general. In some cases, we’re disabled because this society is doing things which disable us. A lot of disabled people face abuse, poverty, etc. and, if you look at it in social contract terms, it looks like it’s being dictated by [white, cis, etc.,] abled-run institutions, and then broken by the same [white, cis, etc.,] abled-run institutions.