A hearing aid can be part of your style.

The first prototype was for herself

Ahtiainen was already an accessories designer when she began wearing hearing aids in 2018. In her account of DEAFMETAL’s beginnings, she describes making a small leather holder around the device and hanging leather strips and chains from it. She photographed the result and shared it on social media. The idea started with something she wanted to wear, rather than a brief to redesign hearing technology.

The holder is the key design decision. It provides an attachment point around a compatible device, allowing jewellery to become a separate choice. The hearing aid continues to do its job; the wearer gains a way to decide how it looks.

A voice beyond the product photograph

In a first-person account published by RNID on 9 October 2026, Ahtiainen describes how hearing loss had made it harder for her to join conversations. Hearing aids helped her participate again, but their appearance did not fit her style. Her aim, she explains, was to make her own devices feel like hers, rather than simply draw attention to them.

That distinction gives the project its substance. Expression need not mean maximum visibility or a single aesthetic. It means having an option. A wearer who prefers something discreet and someone who chooses a chain should both be able to recognise themselves in the objects they use.

Personal choice is the outcome

DEAFMETAL is compelling because the intervention is small and the authorship is personal: a designer worked from her own experience of using an assistive device. Her testimony explains the motivation; it does not establish that every wearer will have the same response. The strongest idea to carry forward is the freedom to customise something that is already part of your daily life.