Like my mother, I am hard of hearing. Decades on, I face many of the problems she did | Tharā Gabriel

Progress towards Trinidad and Tobago being an accessible society has stagnated. From taking a taxi to getting medical care, accessibility is still a delusion

Trinidad and Tobago has many notable attributes but, sadly, deaf awareness and public sensitisation to deaf culture is not one of them. The last 50 years of family experiences, added to my personal observations, show we still face the same problems, with deaf and hard-of-hearing people still being novelties. It's simply not our society. It may be a harsh assessment but this is my reality."

Three years on from writing that, I am still lip reading and winging it. The upshots of a pandemic; climate, economic and migration crises; flagrant infringements on basic human rights; mass protests; country invasions; wars; terrorism; and, more importantly for people who are deaf and hard of hearing (HoH), a catalysed evolution of AI and technology relating to our personal and professional methods of communication. Yet, here in Trinidad and Tobago ... not much has changed - accessibility is still a delusion.