Jane Biehl was six years old when she learned she had a hearing loss. However, growing up in the 1950s and ?60s, Jane’s experience was very different from that of children with hearing loss today. For her, this meant bulky, uncomfortable hearing aids, navigating school without the aid of interpreters and notetakers, and daily conflicts with school bullies and students who didn’t understand. In college, Jane faced not only academic challenges but severe health issues that arose from the stress of living in a high-pressure scholastic environment.
Despite these earlier obstacles, though, Jane has gone on to live an adventurous life of engaging with people of different cultures, plumbing the depths of literature and human compassion as a librarian, counselor, and teacher, and fighting for people with disabilities to live full and equal lives in society.
Spanning over five decades, Do You Have a Voice? showcases Jane’s journey as a person with hearing loss amid the changing world of disability and Deaf Culture, from educational reform to the accessibility of new technology to the passage of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. Inspiring, educational, and humorous, this account of Jane’s journey will open your eyes to life as a person with hearing loss and teach you how kindness and joy can make a difference in the world.
