Aryn Robinson

Why are you interested in joining the national SAA Board of Directors?

I was nominated by someone which makes me feel that someone out there sees something in me and thinks that my ideas are worth taking to the national level. It makes me uncomfortable to speak about myself like this, but I do think that I have some good ideas that are backed by my passion. I go to school in Ohio and have always lived here. By being on national SAA Board of Directors, I hope to gain a broader view of audiology across the country. The intersection between audiology and our different communities is valuable information that can help us to grow audiology in a more inclusive direction.

If you could change one thing about the profession of audiology, what would it be?

This is tough because I want to say the cost of devices, however, this has less to do with audiology than it does industry and insurance. It makes me sad that people cannot afford a device that they need. Then I think about the snowball effect that this has on the rest of their life. For a class over the summer, I wrote a paper on listening effort. The literature that I read highlighted how exhausting it is for a person with a hearing impairment to try to hear sounds. That is before they try to process and understand that sound. This makes it difficult to be productive at work which can cause financial difficulties. Chronic exhaustion and financial struggles can both lead to a decrease in quality of life. To think that people could avoid these cycles if they could get hearing devices is something that I think about often.