The word "aloha" reminds most people of Hawaii, but to an adult with hearing loss, it can mean support and a helping hand.
The Adult Loss of Hearing Association Inc., called ALOHA, recently celebrated 25 years as a local, nonprofit support and advocacy group. Its office is at 4001 E. Fort Lowell Road, where there are a weekly support group, classes and other information and referral services.
"I don't think there's any place better that understands what it's like to be an adult with hearing loss," said local audiologist Pam Wood, vice president of ALOHA's board of directors.
East Side resident Jean Coombs has been going to ALOHA since 2008 or so, first for the support group and now to learn sign language. She said going to ALOHA has helped her realize that she's not alone as a hard-of-hearing adult in Tucson.
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"You catch up on all the latest devices for people who are hard of hearing, all the latest support groups and programs that are out there," said Coombs, 84.
Coombs is one of an estimated 70,000 Pima County residents who are hard of hearing, according to figures from ALOHA.
Statewide, an estimated 8.4 percent of Arizonans — 677,836 people — will be hard of hearing in 2010, according to the Phoenix-based Arizona Commission for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing.
People who are hard of hearing have some hearing and "feel reasonably comfortable" using their hearing to communicate, according to the National Association of the Deaf.
Coombs is taking a sign language class at the ALOHA office in case she loses more of her hearing. The classes cost $50 for members of the organization and $75 for non-members.
Her daughter and granddaughter are studying sign language at Pima Community College, and she has another daughter, a teacher, who incorporates sign language into her kindergarten class.
"I felt that if I really become deaf I will be able to communicate with them with very good luck because it's hard … it is learning a new language," Coombs said. She began losing her hearing around eight years ago.
However, hearing loss can begin at any age, Wood said. She said common causes include noise exposure, aging, hereditary and ototoxic drugs such as some chemotherapy treatments.
ALOHA has classes on beginning and intermediate sign language and speech reading. The room where the class is taught is equipped with an assistive-listening system called an induction loop. ALOHA sponsors an initiative called "Let's Loop Tucson," which aims to increase the number of places that have the systems installed.
Like Fisher and Coombs, Midtown resident Christine Olmstead, 56, is in ALOHA's beginning sign language class. Plus, she and her roommate have both taken a speech reading class at ALOHA.
Looking back, she says she began to recognize her hearing loss as early as 1998, but it wasn't corrected until around two years ago because shedidn't realize how bad it was. Now she wears hearing aids in both ears.
"They have changed my life again."
Get in touch
The Adult Loss of Hearing Association Inc., or ALOHA, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays at 4001 E. Fort Lowell Road. For more information, go online to www.alohaaz.org or call 795-9887.
