For the first time, I entered University as an undergraduate. I encountered a lecturer in my first year who asked me this question every day, "Does your hearing get better?" or "Is your hearing better now?"
I'm not sure if this was due to plain ignorance or lack of awareness about hearing loss and the whole 'Deaf' scenario. If you are someone who has the same question that she asked me - NO, OUR HEARING DOES NOT GET BETTER. If you are born with any levels of hearing loss, there are no chances that your hearing becomes better. Hearing aids and cochlear implants were designed to give the Deaf user a possibility of hearing sounds. However, hearing aids and cochlear implants can not imitate the performances of a normal ear. We get all of our information from visual cues like gestures, lip movements, and facial expressions.
The lecturer commented saying, "you should come out of your comfort zone."
At present, I have a profound hearing loss in my left ear and severe hearing loss in my right ear. But during my toddler years, I had severe hearing loss in both of my ears. This shows as you get older, your hearing levels can decline. It does not apply to old elderly people; it also applies to deaf people regardless of age. It requires the deaf user to upgrade their assistive devices or reprogram their hearing aids to suit their declining hearing loss.
This question came up when we had to do a 'listening component' of our mid-semester exams. She kept on asking me about my hearing improvement, despite me informing her that the exam does not suit me and inquiring if there is a possibility for me to do a written paper. The lecturer commented saying, "you should come out of your comfort zone.", which is again a bad example.
Next time, when you come across a deaf or hearing impaired person. Please do not ask that question. It shows your ignorance and your utter lack of awareness on the issue.
Even it happened with me few days back, I have attended the interview few days back on Google meet as I am hearing impaired (partially deaf) non sign language user, I was finding difficult to communicate. I some how managed to give answers to interviewer with help of my family member in communicating. In the end interviewer asked me if my hearing gets better? If I can manage with hearing aid? I was blank (silent) of this Question again and again from others. No one understands deaf (hard of hearing) better, other than deafs , there is no much awareness and also less job opportunities for deaf.