I recently participated in an article for The Hearing Journal — the conclusion of its three part series on Over-The-Counter (OTC) hearing devices. Part 1 included perspectives from hearing health professionals. Part 2 shared views from hearing industry leaders. The third part was from the consumer perspective — people with mild to moderate hearing loss. I am happy to share the article below.
Watching TV can be a challenge for people with hearing loss. In my home, I have things set up just the way I want them. I use a sound bar that enhances speech over background noise and always watch with closed captions. But when I am elsewhere, it can be trickier. People are sometimes resistant to putting on the closed captioning or don’t know how to work that feature on their particular television set. The acoustics are often not ideal either, especially if the TV is far across the room like in a waiting room or hotel room. In the exhibit hall at HLAA’s 2018 Convention, I discovered a new tool that might help.
I am proud to share my hearing loss story and tips on Hearing Tracker.
I was lucky to present recently at the American Academy of Audiology’s annual convention in Nashville held April 18-21, 2018. You can read about my presentation here. It was a fascinating experience to attend an audiology conference, not as an audiologist, but as a patient. It was interesting to attend the various educational sessions for the audiologists, listen in on the latest product launches from the hearing aid manufacturers, and walk the expansive exhibition hall to explore new and innovative products for people with hearing loss. I am so glad I attended.
1. Audiologists are genuinely concerned for our welfare. There were many sessions describing the details of patient-centered care in attempts to provide more personalized and effective hearing care for people with hearing loss. These talks were well attended and numerous questions were raised.
2. Over-the-counter (OTC) hearing devices are slowly being accepted. While there seemed to be push-back from some audiologists when the OTC hearing aid concept was first floated, most sessions at AAA 2018 seemed to regard OTC as a done deal. Attention was focused on how to best integrate OTC hearing aid wearers into an audiology practice, rather than rejecting the initiative entirely.
Click here to read more positives on Hearing Tracker.
1. Limited hearing assistance was offered. Few sessions were captioned or had listening assistive technology available. This was not surprising since the audience did not likely include many people with hearing issues, but making the options available would have shown respect for the people who did need them.
2. Poor communication habits were on display. At many of the sessions, questions were asked without using microphones and presenters did not repeat these questions before answering them. This is fairly typical at large meetings, but I had hoped for better from professionals whose job is focused on improving communication.
Click here to read more negatives on Hearing Tracker.
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Hearing aid technology advances every day, but of course, those of us who wear hearing aids wish it would advance even faster. Today’s hearing aids range from simple analog devices to souped-up digital models with T-coils, multiple situational programs, rechargeable batteries and connectivity to smart phones. But the hearing aids of the future will likely offer even more features.
Here is my wish list. Please add your thoughts in the comments.
Every theater, every show, every seat will be accessible on demand for people with hearing loss. This is the goal of the latest accessibility initiative on Broadway. And it is a big one. The initiative, sponsored by The Shubert Organization, The Broadway League and Theater Development Fund, would allow people with hearing loss to utilize on demand captioning at every show (after the first four weeks) starting in 2018 via the GalaPro app on a mobile phone or a separate hand-held iCaption device. The idea is exciting — but the execution is still a work in progress.
