Is Conductive Hearing Loss a Disability for Social Security Benefits?

Employment can be made more difficult for a person struggling with hearing loss. One common difficulty related to employment airs holding conversations with coworkers. It requires additional energy to communicate which can leave the person with hearing loss frustrated.

Some coworkers may avoid communicating with the employee with a hearing loss due to frustration or the need for extra effort to be heard. The person with hearing loss may feel socially isolated or unable to achieve their career goals without cooperation and interaction with coworkers.

Often, the person tries to keep their hearing loss a secret from their coworkers and employer. Unfortunately, this can exasperate the problem. Without awareness of the hearing loss, coworkers can feel ignored or that the person with hearing loss is disinterested.

Since conductive hearing loss can make employment difficult, is conductive hearing loss a disability? If the conductive hearing loss is temporary or can be improved with the use of hearing a, it is not typically considered a disability.

The standard for a hearing loss disability set by the Social Security Administration is an impairment of ninety decibels for air convection. For the sake of determining if the impairment is a disability, the hearing impairment measurement of the better ear is compared to the Social Security Administration’s standard.

Not all people with hearing loss would like to get disability benefits. Many make productive employees. If an employer is willing to make accommodations for the employee with a hearing loss, the employee often has a better attitude towards work and is more productive.

Even though conductive hearing loss is often temporary, the government recognizes that a severe conductive hearing loss occurring over a significant amount of time can interfere with a person’s employment. If the person’s hearing impairment is expected to last for at least a year and the impairment is at least the entered set by the Social Security Administration, the person may be entitled to disability benefits.

A person with conductive hearing loss can have difficulty in relationships as well as in their employment. Frustration and depression are common for the spouse of a person with hearing loss. Often, the spouse without a hearing loss feels ignored.

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