Within this paper we have considered some of the particular disabilities and handicaps commonly experienced by elderly hearing-impaired people as compared with younger individuals. We examined their ratings of their disability and handicap and found that both disability and handicap increased more rapidly with increasing hearing loss in younger than in older patients. We have finally considered the strategies used by older people to cope with hearing loss and found them more likely to withdraw from difficult listening situations or to interrupt the speaker, but less likely to position themselves to hear better.