The Deaf Services Contact Centre, along with a range of Deaf Services staff were recently treated to a very special presentation from Brisbane-based Deaf software developer Elliot Miller.
Elliot was a recipient of a 2018 Deaf Services Life Enrichment Grant (100% Funded by The Deaf Lottery) which he has used to develop Hearoes, an auditory training app from people with newly-installed cochlear implants.
Elliot is one of the featured community members in Deaf Lottery 180, which focuses on Deaf and hard of hearing Australians who have achieved remarkable personal and professional goals with the support of Deaf Services, and in particular grants funded directly through our Lottery.
Elliot explained a little about his background, and how he became interested in the concept of real learning through “play” which fostered in him an interest in studying game development.
He explained the core challenge facing cochlear implant recipients is having to learn the very concept of what hearing is (what is and isn’t a sound), and allowing the brain to retrain itself from the ground up.
The idea for Hearoes came to Elliot when, not long after receiving a cochlear implant, he was out for a run. He began hearing an unfamiliar noise when he was jogging which would stop as soon as he did. It was only later he realised it was the sound of coins rattling in his pocket—a sound he was, of course, unfamiliar with.
Elliot decided create an app which featured activities based around environmental “real-world” sounds, and which encouraged practice and development through a “dynamic learning pathway”, i.e. the user learning sounds that were useful and relevant to their lives.
In this way, Hearoes has proven very successful, and Elliot shared some testimonies from happy users. It was clear that the app has empowered many people to learn and feel confident in doing so.
Elliot thanked Deaf Services and The Deaf Lottery for awarding him a Life Enrichment Grant, which has allowed him to add 10 new activities to the app (including Australian-specific sounds like pedestrian crossing signal noises and cockatoos!) as well as help foster a new partnership with the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
Contact Centre staff asked some very intelligent and thoughtful questions about the use and promotion of the app, and all agreed that it was invaluable to be able to receive such a detailed presentation from Elliot. In this way, we can better understand not just Elliot’s story, but give a unique insight into an aspect of hearing loss we may not always think about.
Find out more about Hearoes at games4hearoes.com