A few weeks ago I had the genius idea of writing a blog about how hearing aids are portrayed on television. Fall shows are premiering, so TV shows are on our mind. Stroke of genius, right? Only problem is, people on TV and in the movies don’t wear hearing aids. Sure, a select few do, but they are hard to come by. Over the years, more and more users of sign language started popping up in the media. Even those instances can be a bit ridiculous. Yes, I’m looking at you Ted Mosby, and your random knowledge of American Sign Language (ASL). And, you, Bones, for having a lawyer fill in as interpreter, instead of bringing in a certified one for a deaf character. While we become more accepting of those in the Deaf community, do we still have an aversion to people with hearing aids?

One example I did find of a character with hearing aids was of Saul from the ABC show Brothers and Sisters.  The one episode where Saul mentions his hearing aids, he also finds out that he has AIDS. He describes how he has dealt with aging and feeling older and includes hearing aids in that description. The show chose to introduce Saul’s hearing aids in a darker, more somber storyline, instead of representing them as a positive addition to his life. His character is a fighter and a strong individual throughout the series, and ABC certainly could have framed his hearing aids as him taking charge of his health, much like he was with his HIV diagnosis.

We do applaud ABC Family’s Switched at Birth for showing a Deaf, ASL-user who also wears hearing aids. And she’s young, to boot!

So, Hollywood, I ask my original question: what gives? Is the idea of hearing aids so horrific you won’t put them on the screen? We have taken leaps and bounds in society to become more politically correct in our television programming. In one show, we see a kid in a wheelchair, multiple characters dealing with their homosexuality, an overweight teen and even a choir of Deaf kids. If all of that has become acceptable, why are hearing aids still taboo? Our friends at the Hearing Loss Association of America call hearing loss the “invisible condition.” Thanks to Hollywood, this is only being perpetuated.

Now we ask you, our faithful readers, why do you think we see so few hearing aids in the media? Or, are we missing examples? If so, please point them out to us, we would love to be proven wrong on this point.