Modern cell phones have become much clearer and more reliable nowadays. But sometimes, it will still be hard to hear what the individual on the other end is saying. And for individuals who have hearing loss, it can be particularly difficult.
There must be a simple fix for that, right? Why not utilize a set of hearing aids to make your phone conversations a little clearer? Well, that isn’t… exactly… how it works. Even though hearing aids do help with conversations, with phone conversations it can be a little more difficult. But there are definitely a few things you can do to make your phone calls more successful.
Why phone calls and hearing aids don’t always get along
Hearing loss generally isn’t immediate. Your hearing usually doesn’t just go. You have a tendency to lose bits and pieces over time. This can make it hard to even notice 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. 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.
Hearing aids can help – here’s how
This can be improved by wearing hearing aids. They’ll especially help your ears fill in a lot of those missing pieces. But there are a few distinctive accessibility and communication challenges that happen from using hearing aids while talking on the phone.
For instance, putting your hearing aids close to a phone speaker can create some harsh speaker-to-speaker interference. This can make things hard to hear and uncomfortable.
Improving your ability to hear phone conversations
So, what can you do to overcome the obstacles of using a phone with hearing aids? Well, there are several tips that the majority of hearing specialists will endorse:
- 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 magically better, it’s that your brain has use of all of that amazing visual information again. And once more, this kind of contextual information will be substantially helpful.
- You can utilize 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 you’ll be able to stream phone calls right to your hearing aids (if your hearing aids are Bluetooth enabled). This can get rid of feedback and make your phone calls a little more private, so it’s a good place to begin if you’re having difficulty on your phone.
- Put your phone in speaker mode as often as you can: This will counter the most severe feedback. There may still be some distortion, but your phone call should be mostly understandable (while maybe not necessarily private). Knowing how to hold the phone better with hearing aids (that is, away from your ears) is critical, and speakerphone is how you achieve this!
- Make use of other assistive hearing devices: There are other assistive devices and services that can help you hear better when you’re having a phone conversation (including numerous text-to-type services).
- Be truthful with the person you’re talking to on the phone: It’s ok to admit if you’re having difficulty! You may simply need to be a little more patient, or you might want to think about using text, email, or video chat.
- Find a quiet place to carry out your phone conversations. The less noise around you, the easier it will be to make out the voice of the individual you’re speaking with. Your hearing aids will be much more efficient by reducing background noise.
Finding the correct set of solutions will depend on what you use the phone for, how frequently you’re on the phone, and what your general communication requirements are like. Your ability to once more enjoy phone conversations will be made possible with the right approach.
If you need more advice on how to utilize hearing aids with your phone, give us a call, we can help.
