Good gosh, what did you say? I still didn't hear you.
Having CAP (Central Auditory Processing Disorder) is like having a quiet friend in my life with Autism. Admittedly, I am not very well educated in this topic, but I can share my experiences; and maybe it will help you reconsider any negativity towards that person who has to ask multiple times what you said.
In my everyday life sound is heard in a delay for me, and my brain has a difficult time distinguishing between foreground sound and background noise. If you call my name and I don't directly see you calling to me, most likely I will not hear you.
For background noise, if there is multiple external sources, I tend to fall into Auditory Over-stimulation; which is a fancy way of saying it can just feel like way too damn much. This tends to be a little more rare for me compared to other people people with ASD though. My belief is that the CAP dampens everything for me when there is too much. (but again, I'm no expert on this!)
However when it does get too much, I find in-ear headphones are a great way to decrease the over-stimulation.
(Even if only in one ear, something that is fed directly into the ear canal is easier to focus on than noise coming from outside the ear)
Now lets talk about talking; er... talk about speech.
The way I understand it, the way people (who are able to hear) understand speech is this: Somebody talks, the words enter into the ear as noise, and hits your eardrums as vibrations? (oh good lord my science teachers are all collectively feeling this) and your brain translates these vibrations as language. (if you both speak the same language)
Well anyway, the point I'm TRYING to make is, my brain has trouble processing these vibrations. Often times its a delay; so you'll hear me ask "pardon?" and immediately have it click before the other person has a chance to repeat. Other times my brain just doesn't process it. Volume and 'clarity' play a big role in whether or not my brain translates.
Now unfortunately, when I say 'clarity', I mean Canadian English; as this is what I was raised hearing. This means I have trouble processing English in most accents. (I was raised around family with heavy German accents, and still have trouble processing German accents) This poses a problem with talking to lots of people that I would love to talk to!
So hopefully this helps you add a fresh perspective, and gain patience for some others. You don't have to speak in exaggerated pronunciation to me, but just be patient if I do ask you to repeat yourself!
PS Don't judge people for needing subtitles.
Anyway, have a fantastic day!
