Contemporary cell phones have become much clearer and more reliable nowadays. But in some cases, it will still be difficult to hear what the person on the other end is saying. As a matter of fact, there’s one population for whom phone conversations aren’t always a reliable experience: those with hearing loss.
There must be an easy solution for that, right? Why not utilize a set of hearing aids to make your phone conversations a bit easier? Well, that isn’t… exactly… the way it works. It turns out that, while hearing aids can make in person conversations a lot 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 successful.
Why hearing aids and phone calls don’t always play nice
Hearing loss normally advances gradually. It’s not like someone just turns down the overall volume on your ears. You have a tendency to lose bits and pieces at a time. This can make it hard to even detect when you have hearing loss, especially because your brain tries very hard to fill in the gaps with contextual clues and other visual information.
When you have phone conversations, you no longer have these visual hints. There’s no extra information for your brain to work with. There’s only a really distorted voice and you only make out bits and pieces of the range of the other individual’s voice.
How hearing aids can help
Hearing aids will help with this. They’ll particularly help your ears fill in a lot of those missing pieces. But talking on the phone with hearing aids can present some accessibility issues.
For instance, putting your hearing aids near a phone speaker can produce some harsh speaker-to-speaker interference. 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 can you do to overcome the difficulties of using a phone with hearing aids? Most hearing specialists will suggest a few tips:
- Switch your phone to speaker mode as often as you can: This will prevent the most severe feedback. There may still be a little distortion, but your phone call should be mostly understandable (if not necessarily private). The best way to keep your phone and your hearing aid away from each other is by switching to speakerphone.
- Find a quiet place to conduct your phone conversations. The less noise near you, the easier it will be to pick out the voice of the individual you’re speaking with. If you control background noise during phone calls your hearing aids will work so much better.
- You can use your Bluetooth function on your hearing aid to stream to your phone. Wait, can hearing aids stream to smartphones? Yes, they can! This means that if your hearing aids are Bluetooth capable, phone calls can be streamed straight to your phone. If you’re having difficulty using your phone with your hearing aid, a great place to start eliminating feedback would be switching to Bluetooth.
- Don’t conceal your hearing problems from the individual you’re speaking with: It’s all right to admit if you’re having difficulty! Many individuals will be fine switching the conversation to text message or email or video calls (or just being a little extra patient).
- Utilize other assistive hearing devices: Devices, including numerous text-to-type services, are available to help you hear better during phone conversations.
- Utilize video apps: Face-timing somebody or hopping onto a video chat can be a great way to help you hear better. It’s not that the sound quality is magically better, it’s that your brain has use of all of that fantastic visual information again. And again, this kind of contextual information will be considerably helpful.
Finding the correct set of solutions will depend on what you use the phone for, how often you’re on the phone, and what your general communication needs are like. With the correct approach, you’ll have the tools you need to start enjoying those phone conversations again.
Call us for some help and guidance on how to best use your phone and hearing aids together.
