Kate Obermayer (nee Locke)
Kate Obermayer was 11 years old when her mild hearing loss was first discovered through a routine hearing test in primary school. Her family was told that she had probably been struggling with undiagnosed hearing loss for many years.
Doctors told her parents that her hearing would probably deteriorate as she got older, and that it was possible she could become profoundly deaf. She has two brothers and a sister, all of whom are hearing, and no family history of deafness.
At 13 years old, she was fitted with hearing aids through Australian Hearing, but - being of the age where being different can be painful - she refused to wear them, and struggled through primary school and high school without them. There was a lack of support and understanding for young people struggling with hearing loss in the 1990s, and the stigma of hearing aids and deafness made it difficult to talk about this.
By the time she was 18, Kate's hearing level had deteriorated from mild to severe. She decided before travelling overseas to use the anonymity of being overseas to start being more open about her hearing loss. She wore her hearing aids, took classes in lip-reading, and became open in telling others she was deaf. It was a revelation, and life slowly became easier. She realised that it was the acceptance of her hearing loss that made everything easier - and she didn't have to hide who she was.
With a bachelor degree in Communication and Journalism, Kate is now profoundly deaf. In 2003, Kate launched her own web design company, Urbin Dirt Interactive, and after working in editing and publishing for 5 years, now works as an Online Content Manager for Zurich Financial Services.
She is on the Board of the Deafness Forum of Australia, and of the Australian Commucations Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), and met with former Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, who agreed to become the Deafness Forum's ambassador, and Hear For You’s patron.
She is also on the ABC’s advisory panel for the online disability portal, Ramp Up.
Kate was invited by the Minister for Ageing to be on the Hearing Services Consultative Committee in 2008, which reports directly to the Government on hearing issues.
In addition to her achievements, Kate won the Human Rights Community (Individual) Award at the 2009 Australian Human Rights Awards Ceremony. Kate, who was nominated by Hear For You, has done extensive volunteering work promoting captioning and accessibility rights for deaf people.
In 2009, Kate finally took the leap, and got her first cochlear implant through the Sydney Cochlear Implant Centre. Though she is still profoundly deaf, with the implant she can now hear much better at work, in meetings and on the phone (but every now and then she still likes to switch them off and enjoy the silence!).
She wrote a blog about her experience, from surgery right through to switch on and to rehabilitation, and you can read it here: www.katelocke.wordpress.com
In 2010, Kate married her partner Ben, and they recently had a baby, Arlin Drum.
Looking back, she wishes there had been a deaf role model for her to look up to when she was dealing with her deafness, so the mentoring program holds particular meaning for her. She is excited to be helping Hear For You in their quest to provide hope and inspiration to young deaf people.
Her motto is ’feel the fear and do it anyway’.
