Digital Storytelling

Allow people to share personal experiences with hearing loss through videos and stories!

Idea at a glance

Add an interactive, dynamic section to your clinic's website where people can share personal stories to illustrate what it means to live with hearing loss. The website could use digital storytelling methods, encouraging visitors to share their own stories by uploading videos, pictures, sounds, and text. 

This will allow individuals with hearing loss the ability to recount their unique journey with hearing loss and share with others how they decided to take action. Their moving stories could help inspire others to act on their hearing and seek help. 

Inspiration

StoryCorps is a program on U.S. public radio that aims to provide people of all backgrounds with the opportunity to record and share their life stories. The program has a website where one can browse through the story database and record your own story. Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected more than 40,000 interviews from 80,000 participants. Educators across the U.S. have used the website in the classroom to teach history and interviewing methods. AMD Alliance International aims to raise awareness and bring help to those affected by age related macular degeneration (AMD), an eye disease that causes a loss of vision. The AMD website features videos with personal stories, local resources, information, and the opportunity to connect with others affected by AMD.

Potential Impact

Stories are how we think. They are how we make meaning of life. You can call them mental models, metaphors, or narratives, but stories are how we explain how things work, how we understand our place in the world, and how we create our identities. Portraying life with hearing loss through the words and stories of people with hearing loss has the potential to inspire others in your community to seek help and advocate for better hearing care.