Audira is an online think tank for exploring matters related to hearing.
- Audira is not a professional body.
- Audira is not interested in setting professional standards or recommending codes and scopes of practice.
- Audira is not commercial.
- Audira is not linked to any single hearing care provider or manufacturer.
Instead Audira is about looking at the ‘bigger picture’ – how systems, individuals, and organizations and society interact with one another, and this affects our individual and collective relationship with hearing and deafness.
Audira brings individuals and organizations together from different backgrounds with the shared objective of better understanding the role hearing plays in our own lives and in society. These insights then help to inform hearing healthcare and modernize society’s attitudes to hearing and deafness.
Audira was founded in 2010 by Curtis Alcock, a hearing healthcare professional based in the United Kingdom.
Curtis realized that many of the issues faced by hearing healthcare all over the world were very similar, yet there appeared to be been an historical tendency for anyone involved in hearing healthcare to compete against one another at the expense of these bigger, common goals.
“Yes, we should be competing with each other on our differentiators, but not on those goals we share.
When we compete on our common goals, we dilute our message to society, limit our influence, and confuse the consumer.
And confusion leads to inaction."
By working together "with a unified purpose and unified message" hearing care increases its influence on society through a united voice.
The word Audira means "s/he will hear".
Its is taken from Interlingua, a language specially developed to combine a simple, mostly regular grammar with a vocabulary common to the widest possible range of languages. It seemed apt to use this as it reflects the spirit of Audira, bringing together the widest possible range of people and giving them the means to work together towards a common goal.
The aim of Audira is to create a society in which the majority of society:
- Respect their hearing (in much the same way they do their eyes and teeth)
- Do all they can to keep their hearing working at its optimum throughout life
- Are mindful of the role their hearing plays within their own lives and within society
- Are confident society will stand with them (advocacy) should a residual reduction in hearing put them at a disadvantage
Respect for hearing means having an attitude towards hearing that results in behaviour consistent with something we value. It means doing all we can to look after it and keep it from harm's way.
Optimum hearing means ensuring it is always “fit for purpose”, whatever life may throw at us. It is about understanding that to compromise our own hearing ability means to compromise what we use it for.
Mindful hearing means understanding the purpose of hearing, both on an individual scale (e.g. work, relationships, learning), and on a societal scale (e.g. sharing of ideas and information).
Advocacy here means recognizing, valuing and understanding the difference in another person’ experience, and taking steps to minimize any disadvantage caused by wider society’s reliance on hearing.