My hearing aids may not be visible, but without them am lost in court

I am a lawyer!!! I only became a psychotherapist in 2018...and this I can largely do without too much talking or listening, but more writing, give assignments using therapy sheets and give feedback in writing. My hearing aids also help and if they fail me there is no panic because a single client would understand.

But, where I have had the most problem is ironically in a court room. Justice you say? Inclusiveness you say? Disability you add? Nope, I don't look like a disabled person right? Which Justice can I be advocating for? 

Two weeks ago I almost cried when I heard the beep of that tiny battery notify me the battery I had just changed a week ago was dying. I was in court and although I had given the number of my file, I couldn't now hear if it was called, and the court was packed full with no microphones and people were speaking and aieeeeeee the battery was picking up on the echoes more than it did the judge's voice...I braved it to go tell him I wasn't hearing well because my aids were dying and the echoes were making me so nervous. The kind judge asked for my number, pulled out my file and called it next. I submitted the documents I had to and left the court both shaken and angry. For how long will I survive like that? For how long would we as a society survive like that? Let me spare you the stigma and questions I have received since moving back to my country in 2015. No one ever asked me what I was wearing like that in Europe. Think about those who can't afford the hearing aids to begin with. The right side is actually bad but I can't afford to send it France for diagnosis and repair at the moment. Those aids cost me 1 million cfa francs in 2015, I dread to think what will happen if the left side gets bad too. 

I am determined to make my disability noticed and so I sometimes write on papers that I prefer to read instead of listening... it's strainous listening...

Awwwww to that day when Disability Justice wouldn't be a dream or advocacy cause. When all who are disabled be it physically or mentally in whichever way, feel included and and not stigmatized...

#thereishope