To Tell or Not to Tell?

I love meeting new people. The excitement of learning who they are, their interests, and just sharing interesting talk makes me feel alive. However the communication doesn't always move along smoothly due either to my faulty enunication or my ability to understand their speech. There may be an awkward moment with polite nodding/smiling of silence. I've been guilty of keeping my deafness a secret, I'm loath to admit. For what purpose? Am I ashamed of my hearing impairment? Am I robbing the person the ability to learn, understand, and yes, even empathsize with this disability? Past experience has shown me that when people learn of my hearing impairment, they often begin to talk differently to me. They might talk louder or maybe slower, or worse yet, talk in simple words as if I was retarded! Naturally you can imagine how that gets my bristles up. If age brings wisdom, then I can say that now I'm more likely to clue in my conversationalist while asking to repeat the conversation. I've learned that most people are understanding and caring. It's my job to tell them what I need; to educate them in how to communicate effectively (or at least, they best they can). Now what's so hard about that?
I'm reminded of the story -if you see a blind person trying to cross the street, you should not take their hand to cross with them but instead first ask if they need assistance.