Academic Mentors
Throughout the development of Hear Beyond Words, I have been lucky enough to work with academic mentors who have provided me with guidance, feedback and different perspectives on my project. Having Dr Bec Bennett, Dr Zinette Hopper, Jermy Pang, and Maxine Jobbins involved has helped me strengthen my research, improve my resource and think more deeply about the way I communicate my ideas. Their academic knowledge, professional experience and understanding of the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community have been really valuable in helping me develop Hear Beyond Words into a more credible and meaningful resource.
Jermy Pang
RESEARCH AUDIOLOGIST, NATIONAL ACOUSTIC LABATORIES | PhD CANDIDATE, THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND
Jermy is a Research Audiologist at the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) and a PhD candidate at The University of Queensland. Jermy's current PhD research explores the experiences of emerging adults who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing as they transition from paediatric to adult hearing healthcare.
Jermy's research experience includes collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data, developing research protocols and contributing to peer-reviewed research. An important part of Jermy's work is also making sure that hearing-health research includes the expertise of people with lived experience of hearing loss.
This makes Jermy a particularly good mentor for my project because Hear Beyond Words also sits between research and lived experience. Jermy has helped me think more critically about how I use evidence, how I represent the experiences of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people, and how I avoid assuming that my own experiences are the same as everybody else's.
Working with Jermy has also given me an opportunity to see how lived experience can contribute to formal academic research, rather than being treated as something separate from it.
Dr Bec Bennett
PRINCIPAL RESEARCH AUDIOLOGIST, NATIONAL ACUOUSTIC LABORTORIES | HEARING-HEALTH RESEARCHER WITH UNIVERSITY AFFILIATIONS INCLUDING CURTIN UNIVERSITY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Dr Bec Bennett is the Principal Research Audiologist at NAL and has an extensive research background in audiological rehabilitation and hearing healthcare. Her research is particularly focused on the social and emotional wellbeing of people with hearing loss, person- and family-centred care, human-centred design and translating research evidence into practical resources that clinicians and people with hearing loss can actually use.
This is incredibly closely aligned with what I am trying to achieve through Hear Beyond Words. My project is not just about explaining deafness. I am trying to take research, combine it with lived experience and turn it into practical information that social workers, teachers, healthcare workers and other practitioners can use in everyday situations.
Bec has provided feedback throughout the development of the resource and has challenged me to think carefully about the way I frame different scenarios. One particularly important piece of feedback was that I should not begin each scenario by simply explaining why something is difficult for a Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing person. Instead, I should first explain why that situation matters to everybody and what a hearing person might normally experience or take for granted, before showing how the experience can be different when information or communication relies on hearing. This has changed the way I am structuring every scenario in the final resource.
Bec is also providing expert review of the completed toolkit, helping me check its content accuracy, evidence base, usefulness and presentation before I publish the final version.
Dr Zinette Hopper
DOCTOR OF AUDIOLOGY |ACCREDIDITED AUDIOLOGIST | CLINICAL TEAM LEADER AND COCHLEAR IMPLANT AUDIOLOGIST, NEXTSENSE
Dr Zinette Hopper brings an important clinical perspective to my expert review group. She is an accredited audiologist working with NextSense and has specialist experience in cochlear implants.
This perspective is particularly important because cochlear implants and hearing technology feature throughout my resource. As someone who has cochlear implants myself, it can be easy for me to describe devices entirely from my own experience. Having an experienced clinical audiologist review the resource helps me check that information about hearing technology, cochlear implants, communication and clinical experiences is accurate and doesn't unintentionally suggest that everyone has the same experience as me.
Zinette's feedback throughout the development process provides another important bridge between my lived experience and current clinical practice.
Maxine Jobbins
HEARING SUPPORT TEACHER | SPEECH & LANGUAGE THERAPIST
Maxine brings a different perspective again through her experience as a Hearing Support Teacher and Speech & Language Therapist.
Her expertise is particularly valuable for the parts of my resource dealing with school, learning, communication, language development and the ways teachers and other adults can make everyday environments more accessible for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing young people.
Having an education and communication specialist involved also means that the resource is not being reviewed only through an audiology or medical lens. This is important because Hear Beyond Words is deliberately about everyday life. Deafness can affect someone's experience of education, friendships, sport, family life, healthcare, emergencies and community participation, and many of the people using my resource will not be audiologists.
Maxine's review helps me think about whether my advice is clear, practical and appropriate for the people who may actually use it.