Modern cell phones have become a lot clearer and more reliable nowadays. But that doesn’t mean everybody can hear you all the time. As a matter of fact, there’s one population for whom phone conversations aren’t always a reliable experience: those who have hearing loss.
There must be a simple fix for that, right? Can’t you use some hearing aids to help you hear phone conversations more clearly? Actually, it doesn’t work exactly that way. Even though hearing aids do help with conversations, with phone conversations it can be a bit more difficult. But there are certainly some things you can do to make your phone calls more effective.
Phone calls and hearing aids don’t always work well together – here’s why
Hearing loss usually develops slowly. Your hearing normally doesn’t just go. You tend to lose bits and pieces at a time. It’s likely that you won’t even notice you have hearing loss and your brain will attempt to use contextual and visual clues to compensate.
So when you get on a phone, all of that contextual data disappears. Your Brain doesn’t have the info it needs to fill in the blanks. There’s only a very distorted voice and you only hear bits and pieces of the spectrum of the other individual’s voice.
How hearing aids can be helpful
This can be helped by using hearing aids. They’ll especially help your ears fill in a lot of those missing pieces. But there are a few unique accessibility and communication troubles that occur from using hearing aids while talking on the phone.
For instance, putting your hearing aids close to a phone speaker can create some harsh speaker-to-speaker interference. This can make things difficult to hear and uncomfortable.
Tips to enhance the phone call experience
So, what can you do to manage the obstacles of using a phone with hearing aids? the majority of hearing specialists will endorse a few tips:
- Don’t conceal your hearing problems from the individual you’re talking to: It’s ok to admit if you’re having difficulties! You might just need to be a little extra patient, or you may want to consider using text, email, or video chat.
- Consider using speakerphone to carry out the majority of your phone conversations: Most feedback can be averted this way. Your phone calls may not be very private, but even though there still may be some distortion, you should be able to better understand the voice on the other end. Knowing how to better hold your phone with hearing aids (that is, away from your ears) is critical, and speakerphone is how you accomplish this!
- Try to take your phone calls in a quiet spot. The less noise around you, the easier it will be to make out the voice of the person you’re on the phone with. Your hearing aids will be much more effective by decreasing background noise.
- Utilize other assistive hearing devices: There are other assistive devices and services that can help you hear better during a phone conversation (including many text-to-type services).
- Connect your phone to your hearing aid using Bluetooth. Yes, contemporary hearing aids can connect to your cellphone via Bluetooth! This means that if your hearing aids are Bluetooth capable, phone calls can be streamed directly to your phone. This can prevent feedback and make your phone calls a bit more private, so it’s a good place to begin if you’re having trouble on your phone.
- Download a video call app: Face-timing somebody or hopping onto a video chat can be a very good way to help you hear better. The sound won’t be louder or clearer, but at least you’ll have that visual information back. And again, this type of contextual information will be greatly helpful.
Depending on your overall hearing needs, how frequently you use the phone, and what you use your phone for, the appropriate set of solutions will be accessible. With the right approach, you’ll have the resources you require to begin enjoying those phone conversations again.
If you need more guidance on how to utilize hearing aids with your phone, call us, we can help.
