Joining a gym with hearing loss and poor language confidence

[MintoTime]

I am 53, overweight, and aware that my upper body strength is really lacking. I cycle around 1 hr 4 days a week (to work and back) and I try to push myself here. But my upper body doesn't benefit.

We live in a small apartment so no space for any home gym equipment so joining a gym is the only option, I think. But wow I am blocked.

I am partially deaf, and wear hearing aids.
I am really short-sighted and wear glasses.
I assume that people do just work out with these on?

I live in France, but my French is not great - and if I can't wear hearing aids / glasses to lip-read I am completely lost. I guess I could ask about a personal trainer and try and find one who speaks English.

I get through my daily life by knowing what's coming / knowing my environment well. This compensates what I miss due to my hearing loss / lack of French. But the thought of going into a completely new, unknown environment, which might be noisy, with people who won't understand my disability - it's so intimidating.

I wear aids and I keep them in when I go to the gym. I’ve also seen people wearing glasses. Can you ask for a tour of the gym so you can check out the layout and see how you feel once onsite?

I wear glasses and keep them on in the gym, and I’m not the only glasses wearer exercising at my gym.
I don’t wear hearing aids, but I can’t think of any reason why you wouldn’t be able to keep them in in a gym.

I wear my hearing aids at the gym and also at my separate personal trainer appointments. It wouldn’t occur to me not to wear them.

Absolutely no issue wearing glasses and hearing aids in the gym! A good gym should offer you a tour and induction session to discuss your goals and create a programme for you where they'll show you how to do the exercises, set up the equipment, pick the right weights etc. If they don't then definitely book a personal trainer session to get this done.
There's also plenty of workouts available online with good instruction, I often see people following videos on their phone in the gym.

A lot of machines now have QR codes for guides on them to look up on phones which could be helpful.

Glasses and hearing aids shouldn't be a problem.

Other than classes, most people tend to get on in their own bubble.

try not to stress. First yes it's absolutely fine to wear glasses and hearing aides.
Yes, find someone to show you around, but afterwards, you don't really need to talk to anybody. Go and do your exercises. Most people tend to wear headphones, so nobody assumes others can always hear them.
(I travel a lot and always go to gyms in different countries, including group fitness classes. often I don't speak a word of the language and it has never been an issue)

I wear glasses at the gym