“I’ve always felt in the middle of hearing people and the deaf community.” What is it like to grow up with hearing loss?
20 February 2026Aleksandra Bendowska, Roksana Malak , Agnieszka Zok and Ewa Baum
ABSTRACT
Translational research moves promising primary research results from the laboratory to
practical application. The transition from basic science to clinical research and from clinical research
to routine healthcare applications presents many challenges, including ethical. This paper addresses
issues in the ethics of translational audiology and discusses the ethical principles that should guide
research involving people with hearing loss. Four major ethical principles are defined and explained,
which are as follows: beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice. In addition, the authors
discuss issues of discrimination and equal access to medical services among people with hearing
loss. Despite audiology’s broad field of interest, which includes evaluation and treatment of auditory
disorders (e.g., deafness, tinnitus, misophonia, or hyperacusis) and balance disorders, this study
focuses primarily on deafness and its therapies.