Would Your Smoke Detector Wake You Up?

Ask most people if they can hear the smoke detector and they’ll say yes. They are usually testing it and standing directly beneath it. The more important question is if the smoke detector will wake you up. People with a high frequency hearing loss or severe hearing loss may not be awakened by the high pitched sound of a smoke detector. Read more »

In Praise of Speakerphones

Ever have one of those phone calls where you just can’t understand the caller? It can be frustrating. If you wear hearing aids and can’t find the sweet spot on your telecoil or are experiencing squealing when using the phone (or turning up the volume), then you might wish you had a speakerphone.

Many phones have speakerphone capability but the problem is that the speakerphone may not be of the highest sound quality. Good enough for someone with near normal hearing, but just not good enough if you depend on clarity and volume to hear. Read more »

Choosing a TV Listening System To Meet Your Needs

There are many TV listening systems available now. They all have a transmitter that connects to the audio output jack of the TV and sends either an infrared signal or radio frequency signal to a receiver that you wear.... Read More

Are ALDs Intimidating To You?

Oh Shoot! I’ve done it again. Another hour watching YouTube videos. It started out innocently enough. I followed a link to check out a video and then checked out another, and another.... Read More

Cell Phones and Cell Phone Accessories

Cell phones change more often than hearing aid models and it is hard to keep up. When the FCC mandated a universal rating system for telecoils and microphones in 2006, it was a giant step for consumer education. However, there must be hundreds of cell phone models so education is still needed to wade through the options.... Read More

Reactivating Beyond Hearing Aid’s Blog

Judy Vinegar used to actively share her stories and ideas in this blog and she proved to be hard to replace. Her stories were so full of useful insights and practical advice that much of what she wrote is still relevant. But I realize that I needed to step up and continue to meet our goal of providing the best information possible to help people make informed decisions on ALDs.... Read More

Awesome Cell Phone Accessories

Recently, a reader from Australia wrote about her problems with buzzing and interference when using her cell phone with a loopset. She wants to know if you can bypass hearing aid telecoils completely and plug your hearing aids directly into the cell phone.... Read More

When Hearing Aids are a Difficult Fit

Last week, I introduced the topic of self-esteem and hearing loss. One of the reasons why it’s difficult to maintain a sense of self-esteem with hearing loss is that this invisible condition is so often misunderstood. People see the behaviors of a person with hearing loss and erroneously guess that the person is senile, snobbish, or inattentive.... Read More

Self-Esteem and Hearing Loss: What’s Your Opinion?

Are you hard of hearing and comfortable about it? If you’re embarrassed rather than comfortable, you’re not alone. For the most part, people who are hard of hearing see their hearing loss as a sign of aging and reduced mental functioning and choose to keep it invisible. But silence and invisibility go hand in hand with powerlessness.... Read More

In Praise of Personal Amplifiers

Someone asked the question “What is the greatest sacrifice that comes with having a hearing loss?” People flooded the hard-of-hearing message board with various answers such as “Not getting the promotion” or “Feeling misunderstood.” Finally, a grandfather wrote, “Missing what my granddaughters are saying.”... Read More