A company I used to actually get a custom cellphone skin is now offering “skins” for cochlear implants.

Colored hearing aids have been available for a long time. While the trend is to try to hide hearing aids, I can see why people would want these (although the pictures leopard print design? garish!)

If you hide a HA – you get the benefit of being treated normally. People don’t yell at you or make ridiculous gestures based on an ignorance of how to treat the HOH or Deaf.

If you DON’T hide the HA, you get the the benefit of people NOT treating you normally – exasperated looks or rolled eyes when you ask someone to repeat themselves, turn down the TV volume, sit in a certain position at the table, or anything else that makes hearing easier.

If hearing is a daily struggle, the second option gets more and more attractive. With cochlear implants, they are usually quite obvious anyway, so why not decorate? I wouldn’t mind seeing this offered for hearing aids. A bit tacky, maybe, but a small price to pay for some cooperation from the “Hearies”.