Alumna finds added reward in helping children with hearing loss

May 20, 2024 – DENTON – As an audiologist, Phallon Doss identifies and treats hearing loss in people from all walks of life. Her practice serves everyone from infants to patients who are over 100 years old. When Doss communicates with her patients, she has an added advantage. The Texas Woman’s alumna is fluent in American Sign Language and can communicate directly with patients who also sign. 

Doss took four years of sign language in high school and developed a passion for working with people with hearing loss. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Communication Sciences from Texas Woman’s and went on to pursue a career in audiology.  
 
“Believe it or not, it is not very common for audiologists to know or be fluent in sign language,” Doss said. “That is something that is unique to myself and my practice. I do get to use my sign language skills quite a bit. Patients that do communicate in sign language are able to come in for appointments and they don’t have to use an interpreter, they can talk directly to the provider and they can feel more included and have better access to care.”

Doss put her signing skills to good use last summer when she returned to Texas Woman’s Denton campus for the Future Classroom Lab’s two camps. She sponsored and volunteered at Camp LEGO and Camp CoDe after hearing that the camps needed a financial boost. The week-long camps are focused on STEM and coding for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. 

“It was great,” Doss said. “I was grateful that they allowed me to participate. I got to bring my son and interact with the kids. I provided audiology services while I was there. We ended up diagnosing hearing loss in a sibling so it was really rewarding. I do feel like being present was helpful to the kids. By the end of the week, when their hearing aid batteries were going dead, I was the hearing aid battery lady. I was also fixing their equipment. I’m so glad I got to do it.” 

Originally, Doss had plans to become a deaf education teacher and chose TWU because of its deaf education program. But after taking an audiology class and watching how her professor tested children with hearing loss, she decided to switch directions and go into audiology.

“I felt I could serve the community better personally as an audiologist,” Doss said. “I was also interested in earning a doctorate and there was an opportunity to earn a doctorate and specialize in something.”

After earning her doctorate from the University of North Texas, Doss worked in a couple of different environments, from private practice to performing intraoperative monitoring during surgery, before deciding to open her own practice closer to home.

“Opening my own practice was something where I saw a need for audiology services in the community that I lived in,” Doss said. “There was not an audiologist or hearing care in the area that I wanted to work. So, I saw an opportunity to serve the community close to home and decided it was a good time to go out on my own and open my practice. It’s been really rewarding and we are going on 11 years with my practice in the San Antonio area.”

Although she works with a full spectrum of people, Doss says children are the bright point in her day. She is starting to get graduation announcements from people that she has worked with since they were little.  

“It is incredibly rewarding,” Doss said. “I love getting to help people improve their quality of life through improved hearing. The patients are so grateful to be able to connect and help to build those connections again with their family and friends. Getting to work with programs like TWU and some other charities that I work with in our area and having the means and resources to give back has been amazing.”