I didn't know you had a disability, may have missed that somewhere.
Well, some people know but I'm not really sure who does and who doesn't. I have a neurosensorial hearing loss. In my case (not everyone's case is the same) when I have my hearing aids on I can hear almost all the low pitch sounds but I have trouble indentifying some, especially the ones I'm not familiar with. However, I have little or no hearing for high pitch, which gives me trouble understading speech sometimes. I tend to have more trouble with the English language because I can't tell the difference between some sounds. For example, sh, ch and z. I pronounce the s and the ch because I was taught when I was a kid. But the z is pronounced different in Spanish (in Puerto Rico like an s, in Spain like th) , and the sh does not exist in the language.
So my inability to make those sounds properly makes it hard for some people to understand me when I speak English. However, I'm told that I speak quite normally (in Spanish that is) and people usually can't tell I'm hard of hearing until I make a mistake or fail to understand something, or my hearing aids are showing (I have long hair).
So, in that sense I function quite normally during conversations but the type of problem I have is not very well known or understood. When I say what? what comes into people's mind is she didn't hear me, and tend to yell, holler or move lips very very slow and that actually makes it worse for me. I always explain how it works with me. Some people get it, some others don't. Also, some sound amplifier devices don't work for me either. It's hard to explain. I need to see to understand.
My audiologist says I am a great lip reader. I think that's because I like looking at people's mouths and faces. This has made a few men think that I'm in love with them, but that's not usually the case. I'm usually just reading their lips.
But well, it makes my life a little harder sometimes but I don't let that get to me. After all everyone has some kind of shit to deal with. I think bad attitudes are the worse kind of disability.
I don't mind talking about it, so if you have any question, feel free to ask, really.