Aural diversity

Diversity in the sense of hearing Aural Diversity describes the plurality of the sense of hearing, encompassing the whole of human and animal nature and extending to machine listening. The Aural Diversity Infographic shows its scope, including: the many changes in so-called “normal” hearing that occur over a lifetime; the universal variations that affect everybody's hearing; the medically identifiable hearing conditions of roughly one sixth of the world's population; and an array of technologies that mediate hearing, such as hearing aids, prosthetics (e.g. cochlear implants, auditory brainstem implants, middle ear implants and bone conduction implants), and all kinds of hearable devices. An important feature of Aural Diversity is the recognition that it includes not only the many forms of hearing loss, but also an increased sensitivity to sound in conditions such as auditory processing disorder, auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder, tinnitus, hyperacusis, misophonia and various types of neurodivergence. The ways in which sound may be heard, processed and understood vary greatly. Existing standards articulate a notion of “otological normalcy” based on the hearing of healthy