These days, the cellular phone network is a great deal more reliable (and there’s a lot less static involved). But that doesn’t mean everybody can hear you all the time. As a matter of fact, there’s one group for whom using a phone isn’t always a positive experience: those with hearing loss.
Now, you might be thinking: there’s a simple fix for that, right? Can’t you make use of some hearing aids to help you understand phone conversations better? Well, that isn’t… exactly… how it works. It turns out that, while hearing aids can make face-to-face conversations much easier to handle, there are some difficulties related to phone-based conversations. But there are definitely some things you can do to make your phone conversations more effective.
Phone calls and hearing aids don’t always work effectively together – here’s why
Hearing loss usually advances gradually. It’s not like somebody simply turns down the general volume on your ears. It has a tendency to go in bits and pieces. This can make it difficult to even notice when you have hearing loss, particularly because your brain tries very hard to fill in the gaps with context clues and other visual information.
When you have phone conversations, you no longer have these visual clues. There’s no extra information for your brain to fill in. You only hear parts and pieces of the other individual’s voice which sounds muffled and distorted.
Hearing aids can help – here’s how
Hearing aids will help with this. They’ll particularly help your ears fill in many of those missing pieces. But talking on the phone while wearing hearing aids can present some accessibility issues.
Feedback can occur when your hearing aids come near a phone, for instance. This can result in some uncomfortable gaps in conversation because you can’t hear that well.
Improving your ability to hear phone conversations
So what measures can be taken to help make your hearing aids function better with a phone? Well, there are a few tips that the majority of hearing specialists will suggest:
- Try to take your phone calls in a quiet location. It will be a lot easier to hear the voice on the other end if there’s less noise. If you lessen background noise during phone calls your hearing aids will perform so much better.
- Put your phone in speaker mode as frequently as possible: Most feedback can be avoided this way. There might still be a little distortion, but your phone conversation should be mostly understandable (while maybe not necessarily private). Knowing how to better hold your phone with hearing aids (that is, away from your ears) is crucial, and speakerphone is how you accomplish this!
- You can utilize your Bluetooth function on your hearing aid to stream to your phone. Hold on, can hearing aids stream to smartphones? Yes, they can! This means you’ll be capable of streaming phone calls right to your hearing aids (if your hearing aids are Bluetooth capable). If you’re having trouble using your phone with your hearing aid, a great place to start reducing feedback would be switching to Bluetooth.
- Don’t hide your hearing problems from the person you’re speaking with: If phone calls are difficult for you, it’s fine to admit that! Many people will be fine moving the discussion to text message or email or video calls (or just being a little extra patient).
- Utilize video apps: Face-timing someone 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 will have that visual information back. And again, this type of contextual information will be substantially helpful.
- Use other assistive hearing devices: Devices, including numerous text-to-type services, are available to help you hear better during phone conversations.
Depending on your general hearing needs, how frequently you use the phone, and what you use your phone for, the appropriate set of solutions will be available. With the right approach, you’ll have the resources you need to begin enjoying those phone conversations once again.
Call us for some help and advice on how to best use your phone and hearing aids together.