The World Hearing Forum is a global network of stakeholders promoting ear and hearing care worldwide. Members of this advocacy network facilitate implementation of World Health Assembly resolution WHA70.13 on “Prevention of deafness and hearing loss” and work to raise awareness for hearing care globally.

WHF membership applications for 2022-23 will reopen in November 2022.

Stay tuned!

Lady Wilson has spent most of her life working tirelessly alongside her husband, the late Sir John Wilson, to eliminate avoidable blindness and promote hearing health at a global level.

In 1974, Lady Wilson assisted in the founding of the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness and the ‘Vision 2020’ programme. In 2000, she co-founded the Hearing Conservation Council and was instrumental in setting up the current hearing care programme at WHO.  She has been recognized for her immense contributions and is the recipient of the Dana International Gold Medal, Order of the British Empire (OBE), Harding Award, Jose Rizal Gold Medal, and Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Ophthalmology. 

The World Hearing Forum community takes the opportunity to express its gratitude for Lady Wilson’s tireless advocacy to prioritize hearing health and to wish her good health and happiness.

World Hearing Forum Changemaker stories tackle societal misunderstandings about hearing loss and challenge related stigma.

Below you can read some of these stories which are also published on the Changemakers' Facebook group.

“For ten years I hid in my ‘deafness closet” Paula Pfeiffer

“I was 6 when I started losing my hearing. I remember asking "what?" all day long, and started reading lips to compensate for my hearing loss. At sixteen, I received the diagnosis: I had severe, progressive hearing loss. My grandmother invested her savings to buy me a pair of hearing aids. But, I was scared, ashamed and did not want to use them. For ten years I hid in my ‘deafness closet’ before I finally woke up to the reality of my life and decided to make change.” Says Paula Pfeiffer a cochlear implant user and the founder of the Crônicas da Surdez, Brazil. “Acknowledging my hearing loss was the first step in starting my journey to become who I am today. Over the following years, I set up the #surdosqueouvem movement in Brazil. Aiming to raise awareness about hearing loss and its rehabilitation, I was surprised and delighted when thousands of people joined this movement. I realized that when you talk openly about your challenges and show your vulnerability, your life changes and you also inspire other people to seek help. Today, I fight for accessibility and access to hearing technologies with the help of 22,000 people-the biggest online community of users of hearing technologies in Latin America. When I was sixteen, I thought I was alone in my deafness journey. But believe me: you are not alone. We are here to help each other”. 

“Let’s all dream very big dreams!” Dr.  Milan Maharjan

I grew up in a middle-class family in Nepal and in 2005, I became an ear, nose, and throat surgeon. My plan was to retire at age 50 when I would devote myself full time to the prevention of deafness in Nepal” Dr Milan Mahajan narrates.

“One day in April 2013, I was speaking with my family about leaving my job when an email arrived on my phone. The email was very poorly written and looked like junk mail. It was translated from Spanish and read: ‘Looking for an ENT surgeon to operate on a young Buddhist monk who is having hearing problem.’  Without thinking, I made a deal with my family that if the email was genuine, I would leave my job and dedicate myself to my dream. But if it was junk mail, I would retire as originally planned. I replied to the email and the very next day received a note thanking me. I found out that the email was sent to all the ENT doctors of Nepal, but I was the only one to reply. After a few months I left my hospital job and established the charity Ear Care Nepal. I was 39 years old and all I had was a dream. The charity grew beyond my expectations and in just eight years; we screened and treated nearly 80,000 underprivileged Nepalese children with ear and hearing problems. Dreams do come true, so let’s all dream very big dreams!”.

To promote the concepts of safe listening and hearing health, the Primer Instituto Auditivo del Paraguay S.R.L. in Paraguay has worked alongside famous local musicians and policymakers. Videos on safe listening and the importance of regulations for hearing safety have been prepared and widely disseminated reaching approximately 504.194 people across the country.

Following the recommendations of the World report on hearing for "hearing across the life course",  Udito Italia Onlus organised the “Hearing clinic” in 2021 and 2022 dedicated to provide hearing care for the elderly and for adolescents in Italy. During this clinic citizens can ask questions to specialists in otolaryngology and pose their hearing health concerns.  Around 50 people participated in the face to face meetings and over 1000 attendees online.

In line with recommendations made in the World report on hearing 2021, the Ndlovu Care Group are organizing hearing screening of newborns and adults at three primary health care clinics; school screening through trained teachers; and community screening. In addition, they have organized workshops on safe listening practices for members of the Ndlovu Youth Choir and local DJs.

Make listening safe group

On 16 June 2022, the Make listening safe group organized a special session on "Make listening safe" as part of the historic conference Heal 2022 at Lake Como in Italy. On this occasion the objectives of the presentation were to discuss ways in which we can leverage the WHO World report on hearing to minimize the impact of unaddressed hearing loss and  to present the WHO and ITU standards on safe listening.

Promoting ear and hearing care in the Region of the Americas

Working across its three levels, WHO is collaborating with the Ministry of Health of Costa Rica to integrate ear and hearing care as part of its new national health plan, which is currently under development. Under the leadership of MOH, Costa Rica (a member of the WHF), the WHO office in Costa Rica and the Pan American Health Organization, the new plan will help ensure equitable access to ear and hearing care for the citizens of the country.

The Ministry of Health of Panama is taking concrete steps to implement the recommendations made in the World report on hearing. Working with the WHO country and regional offices, it is developing a legal framework to implement the WHO global standards for safe listening as a means of hearing loss prevention. At the same time, it is working to adopt a policy on universal newborn hearing screening followed by prompt intervention to address the needs of children with hearing loss. Panama is also organizing a training workshop to implement the recommendations of the 'WHO Global standard for safe listening entertainment venues and events. The workshop targets various stakeholders, including associations of venue holders such as nightclubs, bars, musicians’ and singers’ associations, sound equipment vendors, and researchers in health.

PAHO organized an interactive webinar to raise awareness about hearing loss among young people in the Americas. The webinar brought attention to the main risk factors of hearing loss in adolescents are listening to loud music and using noisy power tools without hearing protection. Specialists from PAHO and WHO also discussed the challenges faced by adolescents with hearing loss. Representatives from the Youth for Health Group spoke about their experiences with loud sounds and the importance of raising awareness in this regard.

Following this, PAHO has published a technical brief on "Protecting the Hearing Health of Young People in the Americas". This highlights the importance of preventing hearing loss caused due to unsafe listening. It calls upon health authorities and policy-makers to come together to develop and promote standards for safe listening across the life course.

Assessing the status of ear and hearing care in the region of Africa

WHO is working with its regional and country offices to assess the status of EHC in the African region. The assessment aims to:

• Assess available policies, services and human resources related to ear and hearing care (EHC).
• Determine the preparedness of the health care system in the country with respect to EHC and identify areas requiring attention.
• Identify opportunities for integrating ear and hearing care across the continuum of care at all levels of the health system.

The report, expected to be published in late 2022, will be followed by policy dialogues in identified countries to improve access to hearing care in the region.

New SONY headphones implement the WHO-ITU standard on safe listening

SONY Corporation has recently taken a positive step towards ensuring the hearing health of its clients. Through the use of the ‘Headphone Connect’ App, users of their latest headphones can now check how safely they are listening with reference to the WHO-ITU recommendations. They can also receive notifications when sound levels are dangerously high.

An affordable tympanometer

Scientists design a cheap tympanometer that can detect ear problems with the help of a smartphone. 

The  tympanometer has always been an expensive device limiting its application in low resource settings. Scientists are now developing tympanometers that are cheap enough and small enough to find their way into the hands of nearly any provider who needs one. 

Celebrating Disability

This month of July in honor of the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Metropolitan Art Museum of New York welcomes Disabled and Deaf artists to reflect on a specific work from The Met collection that sparks their curiosity or inspires them. 

First Barbie with hearing aids

Mattel, maker of Barbie, has unveiled its first doll that uses hearing aids so that more children can "see themselves reflected in the product,"."It's important for kids to see themselves reflected in the product and to encourage play with dolls that don't resemble them to help them understand and celebrate the importance of inclusion," said Lisa McKnight, Mattel's global head of Barbie Dolls.

We would like to give a warm welcome to our new members:  Apta and Federal Guild of Hearing Aid Acousticians.