Nowadays, the cellular phone network is a great deal more reliable (and there’s a lot less static involved). But that doesn’t mean everybody can hear you all the time. And for individuals who have hearing loss, it can be especially challenging.
Now, you may be thinking: there’s an easy remedy for that, right? Can’t you make use of some hearing aids to help you hear phone conversations better? 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 challenging. But there are definitely some things you can do to make your phone calls more effective.
Phone calls and hearing aids don’t always work well together – here’s why
Hearing loss usually advances slowly. Your hearing usually doesn’t just go. It tends to go in bits and pieces. This can make it difficult to even detect when you have hearing loss, especially because your brain tries very hard to fill in the gaps with context clues and other visual information.
When you have phone conversations, you no longer have these visual hints. Your Brain doesn’t have the information it needs to fill in the blanks. 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
Hearing aids can help with this. They’ll particularly help your ears fill in many of those missing pieces. But there are a few unique accessibility and communication challenges that arise from wearing hearing aids while talking on the phone.
For example, putting your hearing aids next to a phone speaker can produce some harsh speaker-to-speaker interference. This can lead to some uncomfortable gaps in conversation because you can’t hear really well.
Bettering your ability to hear phone conversations
So, what can you do to control the obstacles of utilizing a phone with hearing aids? Well, there are several tips that the majority of hearing specialists will advocate:
- Connect your phone to your hearing aid using Bluetooth. Hold on, can hearing aids connect to smartphones? Yes, they can! This means you’ll be capable of streaming phone calls directly to your hearing aids (if your hearing aids are Bluetooth capable). This can prevent feedback and make your phone calls a bit more private, so it’s a good place to begin if you’re having difficulty on your phone.
- Be truthful with the person you’re speaking with on the phone: If phone calls are hard for you, it’s fine to admit that! You may just need to be a little extra patient, or you may want to consider switching to text, email, or video chat.
- Try utilizing speakerphone to conduct the majority of your phone conversations: This will counter the most severe feedback. There might still be some distortion, but your phone conversation should be mostly understandable (if not necessarily private). The best way to keep your phone and your hearing aid apart is by using speakerphone.
- Download a video call app: Face-timing someone or hopping onto a video chat can be a very good way to help you hear better. The sound won’t be louder or clearer, but at least you’ll have that visual information back. And again, this kind of contextual information will be substantially helpful.
- Try to take your phone calls in a quiet spot. It will be a lot easier to hear the voice on the other end if there’s less background sound. Your hearing aids will be much more efficient by lowering background noise.
- Use other assistive hearing devices: Devices, including numerous text-to-type services, are available to help you hear better when you’re having phone conversations.
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 requirements are like. With the correct approach, you’ll have the tools you require to start enjoying those phone conversations once again.
Contact us for some help and guidance on how to best use your phone and hearing aids together.