Is your loss of hearing causing you to talk less frequently on the phone? As time passes, you might feel isolated as a result of your hearing loss. It’s not necessary to give up chatting on the phone. You can absolutely discover ways to stay in touch with your friends and loved ones.
It’s All About Communication
With any relationship, communication is an essential aspect and the same goes for your phone. What can be done to make things better is the real question.
- Have you had an ear exam? Not all loss of hearing is permanent, so get a proper diagnosis. It may possibly be something as straightforward as too much earwax or an ear infection.
- You can consider accessories like Bluetooth or headphones if the volume is already turned up. It will make your phone sound better and it could be an affordable way to get what you need.
- Are the voices too quiet? It’s possible the volume needs to be turned up.
When you eliminate some of the more obvious problems, you can take a look at other possible solutions that will get you back on the phone.
There’s an App For That
There are really quite a few potential apps. There are many apps you can download that will work to get you, and your phone back on the same page, some of which are pretty cool.
What the other person says can be turned to text with some of these apps. These apps are far from perfect, but you should be able to work with them. Brands to look up include:
- Live Caption
- Note, Listen for Deaf
- Hamilton Mobile Cap Tel
Not all voice to text apps are free, but most are affordably priced.
Phones For The Hard of Hearing
You can also find a landline phone has similar functions as an app. They make it much easier to hear by amplifying the sound on the other end. They also work to equalize the tone, so high pitched sounds that tend to drop off become clearer.
Another option is a captioning phone. The captioning service requires a unique phone which has a screen. Captioning works with an operator that either repeats the spoken words so speech recognition software can translate them into text or types them right into the system. From there the words are displayed on the captioning phone’s screen. You will need the internet to use a captioning service.
a traditional phone system that is still around which works similarly to a captioning service is Text-to-Voice Teletype (TTY). However, it does require a separate device to display the text.
Hearing Aids Are The Best Option
In the past, every time a hearing aid got near a phone, you would get ear piercing feedback, but new hearing aids don’t usually do that. The latest technology can work with a hearing aid compatible phone to improve the sound quality and get rid of interference such as background noise. Even when you are not on the phone these wireless hearing aids still work.
An advanced program that permits it to be compatible with both smart-phones and landlines is a stand out feature of current hearing aid technology. You hold the phone up to the hearing aid and allow the technology to work its magic by streaming the sound from one device to the other.
Lots of digital hearing aids are also Bluetooth compatible. Pairing your hearing aid up with your smart-phone is exactly the same as pairing your phone with any other Bluetooth device. The sound goes directly to your hearing aids when it rings.
Don’t permit hearing loss to ruin your friendships and other relationships. Do what you must to make up with your phone, and start talking again. It’s time to schedule an appointment with a hearing specialist to check out the newest hearing aid technology.