DEAFMIRROR 2.0

DEAFmirror^2.0

A hearing simulation platform

// WHAT IS THIS

DEAFMIRROR lets you experience audio the way someone with sensorineural hearing loss does. Upload any sound, choose a hearing profile — a preset or your own audiogram — and listen in three modes: unprocessed, without a hearing aid, and with a hearing aid approximation. The goal is not diagnosis. It is understanding.

// WHO IS IT FOR

For curious listeners, musicians, audio professionals, researchers, educators, and anyone who wants to understand what hearing loss actually sounds like from the inside. Also for hard-of-hearing people who want to share their experience — by entering their own audiogram and sending a link.

// IMPORTANT — PLEASE READ

This is an experimental prototype. The simulations are approximations based on audiometric data and a general hearing aid model (NAL-NL2). They do not represent any individual's exact hearing — especially the "With Aid" mode, since real hearing aids are individually programmed by trained professionals.

DEAFMIRROR does not replace a visit to an audiologist, ENT doctor, or any other medical professional. If you have concerns about your hearing, please seek professional advice.

If you encounter difficulties, have questions, or want to share feedback, you are warmly welcome to reach out directly: deaf.anthro@gmail.com

DEAFmirror^2.0

COMMUNITY AUDIOGRAM SIMULATOR // WEB AUDIO API

// ABOUT

PATH A

I don't have
an audiogram

Choose a preset profile or build one with three simple settings. No medical knowledge needed.

→

PATH B

I have my
audiogram

Enter your exact air conduction thresholds in dB HL for a precise personal simulation.

→

Select a profile to apply it immediately →

Set degree and shape first, then pick which ear(s) to apply →

Degree of loss

Shape

Which ear(s)

STEP 1 OF 4

Do you have your audiogram at hand?

An audiogram is a chart that shows how well you hear at different frequencies. It is produced during a hearing test and looks like a graph with numbers going downward.

You can get yours from your audiologist, ENT doctor (HNO), or hearing aid specialist. It is usually a printed or digital document from your last hearing test.

A typical audiogram. Red ○ = Right ear · Blue color:#4a7cc7;font-weight:600">Red × = Left ear#215; = Left ear. Lower on the chart = greater hearing loss.

WHERE TO GET YOURS

🏥 Audiologist / Hearing clinic

🏥 ENT doctor (HNO-Arzt)

🎧 Hearing aid specialist

📄 Your last hearing test report

STEP 3 OF 4 — EXAMPLE FIRST

Here is how it works in practice

Below is a real audiogram. For each frequency, find where the curve crosses the horizontal grid line — then read the number off the left axis. That number goes into the matching column in the form.

The green arrows show exactly which value belongs where.

EXAMPLE AUDIOGRAM — BOTH EARS

R (○)

—

NR?

L (×)

—

NR?

The green dashed lines trace from each value on the axis to the curve, then down into the matching column. Red = right ear (○), blue = left ear (×).

Profile:

DEAF_ANTHROPOLOGIST · about

DEAF_ANTHROPOLOGIST

artist · sound designer · researcher

artist

Deaf Anthropologist is the sound and research practice of Hamburg-based artist Gaetano Rago. He is researching how the severe sensorineural hearing loss he has lived with since early childhood shapes hearing and perception, and combines ethnographic methods with experimental sound design. Working with modified tape machines, looping systems, and custom Max patches, he explores how sound transforms and distorts as it passes through machines, memory, and the brain. He works primarily with dancers and visual artists and is part of the international collective Exposure Therapy, which explores the politics and poetics of auditory experience.

about this tool

DEAFMIRROR 2.0 is a browser-based hearing simulation platform. Upload any audio file and experience it filtered through a clinical audiogram — your own or a preset profile. Frequency-specific attenuation is derived from real air conduction thresholds, with and without hearing aid approximation (NAL-NL2 model). No installation required. Everything runs locally in your browser.

three modes

ORIGINAL — unprocessed signal. WITHOUT AID — full unaided loss applied. WITH AID — NAL-NL2 approximation of hearing aid gain, with residual attenuation remaining. Switch between modes while audio plays to hear the difference directly.

contact

deaf.anthro@gmail.com