Modern cell phones have become a lot clearer and more dependable nowadays. But that doesn’t mean everyone can hear you all the time. And for individuals who have hearing loss, it can be especially difficult.
There must be a simple solution for that, right? Why not utilize a set of hearing aids to make your phone conversations a bit clearer? Actually, it doesn’t work exactly like that. It turns out that, while hearing aids can make in person conversations much easier to handle, there are some difficulties associated with phone-based conversations. But there are certainly a few 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. You have a tendency to lose bits and pieces over time. It’s likely that you won’t even detect you have hearing loss and your brain will try to use contextual and visual clues to compensate.
When you have phone conversations, you no longer have these visual hints. Your Brain lacks the info it requires to fill in the blanks. You only hear parts and pieces of the other individual’s voice which sounds muffled and distorted.
How hearing aids can be helpful
Hearing aids can help with this. They’ll especially help your ears fill in many of those missing pieces. But there are some unique accessibility and communication troubles that occur from wearing hearing aids while talking on the phone.
Feedback can occur when your hearing aids come near a phone, for example. This can make things difficult to hear and uncomfortable.
Tips to augment the phone call experience
So, what can you do to manage the challenges of using a phone with hearing aids? Most hearing specialists will recommend several tips:
- Switch your phone to speaker mode as often as possible: This will counter the most severe feedback. There may still be some distortion, but your phone conversation should be mostly understandable (if not necessarily private). Knowing how to better hold your phone with hearing aids (that is, away from your ears) is critical, and speakerphone is how you achieve this!
- Make use of other assistive hearing devices: Devices, including numerous text-to-type services, are available to help you hear better during phone conversations.
- Use video apps: You may have an easier time distinguishing phone conversations on a video call. It isn’t that the sound quality is magically better, it’s that your brain has use of all of that fantastic visual information again. And this can help you put context to what’s being talked about.
- Connect your phone to your hearing aid using Bluetooth. Yes, modern hearing aids can stream to your cellphone via Bluetooth! This means that if your hearing aids are Bluetooth capable, phone calls can be streamed right to your phone. This can get rid of feedback and make your phone calls a little more private, so it’s a practical place to begin if you’re having trouble on your phone.
- Be sincere with the person you’re talking to on the phone: If phone calls are hard for you, it’s fine to admit that! Many individuals will be fine switching the conversation to text message or email or video calls (or just being a little extra patient).
- Try to take your phone calls in a quiet spot. The less noise around you, the easier it will be to pick out the voice of the person you’re speaking with. If you lessen background noise during phone conversations your hearing aids will work so much better.
Finding the best set of solutions will depend on what you use the phone for, how often you’re on the phone, and what your overall communication needs are like. Your ability to once again enjoy phone conversations will be made possible with the correct approach.
Contact us for some help and guidance on how to best use your phone and hearing aids at the same time.