Colleen introduces her rarely mentioned brother, Trent, who prefers to keep his life private. She discusses their close childhood relationship and Trent's journey with hearing loss and cochlear implants. Colleen shares family insights, including their mother's perspective on Trent's early life and health challenges. The video also explores Trent's experiences with hearing aids, his decision to get cochlear implants, and the impact on his life. Colleen expresses regret for not having closed captions on her videos and commits to making her content more accessible.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. The speaker, Colleen, has a brother named Trent who is hard of hearing.
2. Trent has cochlear implants, which help him hear.
3. Colleen and Trent are close in age and were best friends growing up.
4. Trent was born with partial hearing loss due to a virus called CMV.
5. The damage from the virus worsened over time, leading to Trent becoming completely deaf.
6. Trent got cochlear implants to help him hear better.
7. Colleen's family respected Trent's wishes to keep his life private and didn't feature him in their vlogs.
8. Colleen asked Trent to do a video with her to share his story and talk about his hearing loss.
9. Trent's cochlear implants were turned on for the first time when Colleen was with him at the doctor's office.
10. The first time Trent heard with his cochlear implants, he didn't understand what was being said and it sounded like a jumble of sounds.
11. Trent relies on lip-reading to communicate, but it's not as effective as it used to be since he got his cochlear implants.
12. Trent still uses sign language, especially in situations where he needs to communicate with someone who is also deaf or hard of hearing.
13. Colleen's videos didn't have closed captions, which made it difficult for Trent to understand what she was saying.
14. Colleen has decided to pay for closed captions on her videos to make them more accessible to people who are hard of hearing or deaf.
15. Google's automatic closed captions are not very accurate, which is why Colleen will be paying for professional closed captions.
16. Colleen's brother and sister-in-law have always had closed captions on their videos, but Colleen didn't understand the importance of it until now.
17. Trent has encountered people who are rude or mean to him because of his hearing loss, but he wants people to know that he is still a person who wants to communicate and connect with others.