What started out with an informational conversation with a close friend led to the creation of a hearing loss awareness blog for my senior project. My emphasis is Strategic Communications and Advocacy within the Communications major, so being a personal advocate for hearing loss and raising awareness about the condition aligned perfectly with my major.

My booth includes the showcase of my blog, the shirt I wore for my personal “Walk4Hearing” goal I set for myself, my personal audiogram results from the audiologist, hearing aid supplies, and ear plugs to encourage protecting our ears from loud noises.

Supplemental Materials

I began researching blog job listings on “Indeed.com” and looked for the qualifications for such a position. I was then led into researching advice for creating a good blog. Some of the important details about blog creating was making sure the site is user-friendly, clear, and readable, enjoyable, and informational.

I created my blog website from the website building company “Wix.com.” It was free to create which was a plus! I created and edited my own logo for the site (located below) and made sure that the overall design was neatly organized and easy to navigate around. After my website was designed and created, I began researching information about what I wanted to include in my blog series.

My blog includes four main sections: “My Story”, “Educate Yourself”, “Awareness”, and “Their Story”. “My Story” is a section that talks about my own story with having hearing loss. “Educate Yourself” include facts and information about hearing loss. “Awareness” addresses how one can get involved to simply raise awareness of hearing loss condition. Finally, “Their Stories” is the personal stories of individuals I have interviewed, or I have found from online and their hearing loss experiences.

I made sure that I typed up each blog post in a separate document so I could proofread and edit the blog post before publishing it on the website. When copying and pasting the text onto the final post I made sure that I had visuals shown. I took some personal pictures from my phone and took some photos free from the Wix website.

Under the “Awareness” section, there is a blog post about a national event called “Walk4Hearing” that is put on by the Hearing Loss Association of America each year. I wanted to be involved in this walk, though the nearest event that was in Salt Lake City, Utah already happened. I felt that I would take matters into my own hands and do my own walk for hearing loss awareness. I completed 2-3 miles every day for two weeks, not including Saturdays and Sundays. I invited my friends and roommates that could participate each day and found a local park to walk laps at. I created a shirt that I wore each time for other park-going individuals could stop and ask me about my shirt.

After completing 13 posts on my “Amplify Hearing Loss” blog, I wanted to make sure that my blog was appealing to my target audience. My target audience was anyone who may have questions about hearing loss, which includes all ages. I created a survey that I typed up, printed out, and handed out to 30 people to fill out after examining the completed website.

After I got the surveys handed out and completed by the group of people, I calculated the average score from each question to give me a better idea of what I need to improve on and update on my website.

This is a video of the edited and updated website, my final project:

I talked on the phone with my faculty mentor and explained to her my final thoughts on how to go about my report and video to showcase my project. She gave me great insights and guided me in a great direction.

I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to advocate for hearing loss!

Check out the website for yourself by clicking this link! https://brenscribs.wixsite.com/amplifyhearingloss