Can a documentary change people’s lives? In the case of We Hear You, the answer seems to be yes!
I watched the film with my son who has never understood my hearing difficulties. For the first time, he pledged to do whatever it took to help us communicate better.
—Older adult with hearing loss
In my community, hearing loss was not something that was discussed, even when I was a child growing up with hearing loss, it was never mentioned. We Hear You was the first time I saw someone with hearing loss who was speaking Spanish. I finally felt seen.
—Spanish-speaking young adult with hearing loss
I never knew hearing aids were not covered by insurance. Or that most people with hearing loss do not know sign language. Thank you for opening my eyes.
—Social worker working with older adults
We have been so inspired by the reactions to the film, we have decided to make it available for everyone for free on YouTube!
Watch We Hear You on YouTube!
The film is now available in both English with English captions and Spanish with Spanish captions. We hope that making the film free and easily available on YouTube will empower more people in our hearing loss community to share it with friends and family, co-workers, and others in their lives so they can learn something new and gain a deeper understanding of the lived hearing loss experience.
By making the film available in Spanish, we hope to empower Spanish-speaking people with hearing loss to open the conversation within their community too. The success of the first-ever bilingual workshop (English and Spanish) at HLAA’s 2023 Convention showed how important it is for Spanish-speakers to have access to advocacy and support in their native language.
Mainstream Media Hard to Crack
Outside the hearing loss community, we have been sharing the film with mainstream audiences. Companies have hosted internal screenings and discussions as part of their disability awareness activities. Universities have invited us to screen the film followed by talk-backs with students and faculty. We have also shared the film at aging / disability conferences. Each screening has been warmly received and participants have walked away with increased knowledge and empathy.
We continue to seek opportunities to share We Hear You with new audiences to raise awareness, build empathy and generate change for people with hearing loss. If your group is interested in hosting an event, please be in touch.
YouTube Access to Support Mainstream Awareness
We hope open access on YouTube will help drive interest with mainstream audiences. You can help by liking and/or commenting on the film on YouTube. Engagement helps jumpstart the algorithm to suggest the film to other users.
Readers, will you watch or re-watch the film now that is on YouTube?
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Of course major kudos on the documentary from a few years ago and thank you so much for making this available for free on YouTube!
Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it!