"New Year, New Century, New Millennium"...What is UNcommon are the extraordinary possibilities that exist to better cope with our hearing loss. Will the time come when we will be wearing micro-hearing aids that neatly "tuck under our skin?" Will hearing aids be disposable like contact lenses? Will we have batteries that last "forever?" Or will medical science simply eradicate the conditions that cause hearing loss? If the hair cells in birds regenerate themselves so that birds can hear again, can it be done in humans?

And in our environment, how many years will it be before every theater, hospital, library, school, work place, hotel, public building, and airport/airplane is automatically hearing accessible? Will it happen on its own, or are we a necessary part of this effort? IT WILL NOT HAPPEN ON ITS OWN, just as wheelchair accessible curbs did not develop out of thin air. We are a necessary part of this effort and together we can move mountains!

Let each and every one of us be the best advocate possible – let us never miss an opportunity to ask about an assistive device, wherever we are! Let us never allow a day to go by that we don't remind people gently, but firmly, that an assistive listening device will allow us to hear a movie; that an amplified phone will allow us to hear a family member or friend. Let us never let a hospital visit go by without making sure a surgeon recognizes that we need our hearing aids to understand. Without them, we might hear little or nothing at all. We do need to make our needs known if we want these extraordinary possibilities to become a reality.

And in the NEXT millennium, well, who knows ... the sky's the limit! With that limitless future to look forward to, even the phrase "hearing loss" can become obsolete and hearing aids might become an ancient relic – "an object from a period that has disappeared."

Wishing you all the best in the new millennium,

Sue Miller