These days, the cellular phone network is much more reliable (and there’s a lot less static involved). But in some cases, it will still be difficult to hear what the individual on the other end is saying. And for people who have hearing loss, it can be particularly difficult.
There must be a simple solution for that, right? Why not utilize a pair of hearing aids to make your phone conversations a bit clearer? Well, that isn’t… exactly… the way it works. Even though hearing aids do help with conversations, with phone conversations it can be a little more difficult. But there are some guidelines for phone calls with hearing aids that can help you get a bit more out of your next conversation.
Why hearing aids and phone calls don’t always play nice
Hearing loss usually develops slowly. It’s not like someone just 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 attempt to utilize contextual and visual clues to compensate.
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 be helpful – here’s how
This can be helped by wearing hearing aids. Lots of those missing pieces can be filled in by using hearing aids. But there are a few unique accessibility and communication troubles that arise from wearing hearing aids while talking on the phone.
Feedback can occur when your hearing aids come close to a phone, for example. This can lead to some uncomfortable gaps in conversation because you can’t hear really well.
Tips to augment the phone call experience
So, what can you do to manage the difficulties of utilizing a phone with hearing aids? the majority of hearing specialists will suggest several tips:
- You can use your Bluetooth function on your hearing aid to stream to your phone. Hold on, can hearing aids connect to smartphones? Yes, they can! This means that if your hearing aids are Bluetooth capable, phone calls can be streamed directly to your phone. If you’re having difficulty using your phone with your hearing aid, a good place to begin getting rid of feedback would be switching to Bluetooth.
- Hearing aids aren’t the only assistive hearing device you can get: There are other assistive devices and services that can help you hear better when you’re having a phone conversation (and this includes many text-to-type services).
- Don’t conceal your hearing problems from the person you’re talking to: It’s okay to admit if you’re having trouble! Many individuals will be just fine transferring the conversation to text message or email or video calls (or simply being a little extra patient).
- Use video apps: Face-timing somebody or jumping onto a video chat can be a very good way to help you hear better. It isn’t that the sound quality is somehow better, it’s that your brain has access to all of that amazing visual information again. And once more, this kind of contextual information will be substantially helpful.
- Try using speakerphone to carry out most of your phone calls: Most feedback can be averted this way. Your phone conversations may not be particularly private, but even though there still might be a little distortion, you should be able to better understand the voice on the other end. Knowing how to hold the phone better with hearing aids (that is, away from your ears) is critical, and speakerphone is how you accomplish this!
- Find a quiet spot to carry out your phone conversations. It will be a lot easier to hear the voice on the other end if there’s less noise. If you limit background noise during phone calls your hearing aids will work so much better.
Finding the right set of solutions will depend on what you use your phone for, how often you’re on the phone, and what your overall communication requirements are like. Your ability to once more enjoy phone conversations will be made possible with the correct approach.
Contact us for some help and advice on how to best utilize your phone and hearing aids at the same time.
