Nowadays, the mobile phone network is a lot 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 phone conversations aren’t always a positive experience: those who have 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 little easier? Actually, it doesn’t work exactly like that. Even though hearing aids do help with conversations, with phone conversations it can be a bit more difficult. But there are some guidelines for phone calls with hearing aids that can help you get a little more from your next conversation.
Phone calls and hearing aids don’t always work well together – here’s why
Hearing loss usually isn’t sudden. Your hearing normally doesn’t just go. 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.
So when you get on a phone, all of that contextual data is gone. There’s no added information for your brain to fill in. You only hear parts and pieces of the other individual’s voice which sounds muffled and distorted.
How hearing aids can help
Hearing aids can help with this. Lots of those missing pieces can be filled in with hearing aids. But there are a few distinctive accessibility and communication troubles that arise from using hearing aids while talking on the phone.
Feedback can occur when your hearing aids come near a phone, for example. This can result in some uncomfortable gaps in conversation because you can’t hear really well.
Tips to augment the phone call experience
So what steps can be taken to help make your hearing aids work better with a phone? the majority of hearing specialists will suggest several tips:
- Put your phone in speaker mode as frequently as you can: This will protect against the most serious feedback. There may still be a little distortion, but your phone call 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 critical, and speakerphone is how you accomplish this!
- Find a quiet setting to conduct your phone conversations. It will be much easier to hear the voice on the other end if there’s less noise. Your hearing aids will be much more effective by lowering background noise.
- Don’t hide your hearing trouble from the person you’re speaking with: It’s all right to admit if you’re having trouble! You may simply need to be a little extra patient, or you may want to think about using text, email, or video chat.
- Stream your phone to your hearing aid via Bluetooth. Hold on, can hearing aids connect 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 enabled). If you’re having difficulty using your phone with your hearing aid, a good place to begin reducing feedback would be switching to Bluetooth.
- Download a video call app: You might have an easier time distinguishing phone conversations on a video call. It’s not that the sound quality is somehow better, it’s that your brain has access to all of that amazing visual information again. And again, this kind of contextual information will be greatly helpful.
- 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 during a phone conversation (including many text-to-type services).
Depending on your overall hearing needs, how frequently you use the phone, and what you use your phone for, the appropriate set of solutions will be available. Your ability to once again enjoy phone conversations will be made possible with the right approach.
Contact us for some help and advice on how to best utilize your phone and hearing aids together.