CHAPTER TWELVE
Assistive Technology:
The Best Kept Secret to Better Hearing
Laine Waggoner, MA, MS

As a mature adult with moderate to profound hearing loss, I wear two powerful behind-the-ear (BTE) aids. I’ve been wearing hearing aids since 1958. In addition to my BTEs, I also use Assistive Technology (AT). During nearly 20 years of mentoring others with hearing loss, I’ve often used and recommended assistive technologies to make life easier. Many people believe excellent hearing aids should suffice across all listening situations—but they cannot. Despite advanced and exemplary hearing aids, there are situations when ATs are more useful than hearing aids, and that’s the focus of this chapter.

My mission is to help others stay active and involved in life. It’s too easy for people to withdraw from their social interactions while employing their spouse or significant other to serve as their ears. This happens a lot with retirees.

As a hard of hearing peer mentor I extend and enrich the professional services of hearing healthcare professionals by reinforcing information given to new hearing aid wearers. I work with hard of hearing people and their families to teach everyone involved new and creative coping strategies. I share my expertise through seminars, as well as support and discussion groups on living creatively with hearing loss.

Many of the products and companies mentioned in this chapter can easily be researched on the Internet. I recommend visiting www.google.com and place the manufacturer’s name and the product name in the search box to learn more about the items you find interesting.

My Introduction to Assistive Technology (AT)

About 25 years ago, I learned about assistive listening technology (AT) from my audiologist. Frankly, it would have been useful to acquire this knowledge earlier. However, despite useful AT products, I soon learned that I needed to be assertive in seeking these technologies and using them maximally. Frankly, I was a bit shy regarding using amplifiers, cords and microphones in public, so it took a little time for me to adapt my normally reserved behaviors to the slightly more bold and aggressive self which allows me to use my ATs when needed.

Myth of the “All Powerful” Hearing Aid

Many of us assume that because we paid a bundle for our hearing aids, they’ll solve all of our listening problems. However, no hearing aid can solve all the difficulties we encounter while listening. For example, background noise, reverberation (echo), and large distances between the speaker and the listener, all create significant listening challenges. Importantly, assistive technology can successfully address these challenges.

Hearing Aid Telecoils

Everyone should have a good, powerful telecoil (telephone coil, T-coil or T-switch) in their hearing aids and hearing care practitioners should encourage patients to acquire and use T-coils in their hearing aids. Every hearing aid wearer should have the opportunity to experience the benefit provided by a T-coil, due to their very low relative cost, the vastly improved sound quality and the ease with which they operate.

T-coils are usually standard in behind-the-ear (BTE) aids and can be programmed to maximize hearing for most individuals. When T-coils are used with most land-line telephones, acoustic feedback is eliminated and loudness may be increased. Because T-coils take extra space within the hearing aid, tiny hearing aids (such as completely-in-the-canal) are not likely to have T-coils.