Broadcast Retirement Network’s Jeffrey Snyder discusses the advances in technology to help individuals that are challenged by partial or full hearing loss with Towson University’s Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Dr. Norin, welcome back to the program. So great to see you this morning.
Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A , Towson University
Nice to see you too. Happy to be here.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And I understand that the semester is back in full swing?
Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A , Towson University
It is, finally, after we got through the snow. We got a little bit of a late start, but yeah, now we’re up and running in full swing and it’s great.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Teaching America’s Future, audiologist Dr. Julie Noren. Yes, yeah. So last time we had you on, we talked about the importance of going to see your audiologist being tested and you still got to do that on a regular basis.
Let’s talk about if I have some hearing loss. There’s technology. We’re in the golden age of technology between AI and the small microprocessor.
Let’s talk about the technology that exists. There’s a lot out there.
Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A , Towson University
Yes. For people who have hearing loss or feel like they’re having difficulty, there’s a lot. There are a lot of options in terms of just generally being able to help with your hearing, whether you go to an audiologist and you get a prescription hearing aid, or you go the over-the-counter route and walk into your local consumer electronics store like a Best Buy and purchase something off the shelf, or even your Apple AirPod Pro 2s now have a program set built into them where you can use them as hearing aids. Yeah, there’s a lot of different technology out there to help just with your hearing in general, but there are also a lot of devices out there to help you in addition to hearing aids or to provide access or awareness of environmental sounds if you can’t hear at all, such as flashing lights or a vibration and so forth. One of the most commonly used technologies that we don’t really think about because it’s so common are captions.
We add captions to our television. I add captions when I’m having trouble hearing or understanding what’s being said, if they’re speaking too quickly or if it’s with an accent that I’m not familiar with, but we can use caption telephones. Captel and CaptionCall are two phone companies.
They are caption phone companies that will provide phones at a decreased cost or free depending on your income status, and they are captioned phones, so they will provide real-time captioning so that you can read the dialogue while you’re listening to the dialogue when you’re on the phone with someone.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
I have to say I use the captions as well because I have a hard time with the British accent. No offense to our British viewers out there, but for some reason, I need it when I’m watching. I was watching The Night Manager, which is a series on the Amazon.
Big plug for them. They’re not a sponsor, but I need it because it doesn’t make sense to me if I don’t, so I pick it up better. Let me go back to something you talked about, the over-the-counter versus a prescripted hearing aid, and I got to tell you, I’m not an expert in hearing.
I can tell you what I hear better with, but is there a difference? I like working with a professional like yourself to select a hearing device. There’s value in that, I think.
Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A , Towson University
Yes, and a lot of the over-the-counter devices that are available now are being tested by the wonderful professionals in our field that do research and evaluate the benefit and how well people are receiving these devices and the ease of use and so forth, and they are also comparing the over-the-counter devices to prescription devices that you might get through an audiologist, so we don’t really know all of the data yet at this point because they still are so new, but in general, the differences would be that when you are working with a professional and you’re going the prescription hearing aid route, you’re getting a device that has been selected for you by a person with the knowledge and expertise to understand what it is that you need based on a whole number of variables, and then that person is programming it appropriately for what you need given your hearing loss and your hearing difficulties as well as your lifestyle and so forth, and then providing all of the follow-up care, verifying that the hearing aids are working for you.
If you’re still struggling or something is not right, that professional is there to provide assistance, fine-tune those devices for you so that they can better work for you if things still aren’t where you hope they will be versus the over-the-counter route, you’re really left to do everything on your own. You must figure out what your hearing levels are, then you have to walk into a retail outfit, purchase the device that you think might be appropriate, and then figure out how to program it to what your hearing measurement is, and then figure out how to use it, and there are a lot more differences in terms of overall allowed output for certain devices and the qualifications of who’s eligible for an over-the-counter device, and a lot of people don’t really know what their true hearing levels are, so if you are someone that’s having significant difficulty, it’s to your best interest to go and meet with a professional first so that at least that professional can provide you with some guidance so that you know which route would be more appropriate for you.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, well, certainly well said, and I mean it’s going to vary. We all have our preferences in terms of do we like to work with the computer, do we like to work with the retail outlet, do we like to work with someone of your profession. I think people are just going to define their level.
Let me go back to something you talked about. You talked about the captioning of the phones, and I think that’s very interesting. I’ve seen ads, by the way, on the local networks here in Charlotte to do that, but I also wanted to kind of ask you about, let’s say I’m really hard of hearing and I want to be aware of carbon monoxide poisoning or fire.
Do they make devices that alert you if there’s some kind of trouble there, or you have a home alarm system, right? I mean sometimes you just can’t hear that even though it’s a piercing sound, you can’t hear.
Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A , Towson University
Yeah, yeah. There are a lot of devices out there. Those are called hearing assistive technologies or assistive listening devices.
Those devices will either provide the user with a greater awareness of a sound that’s happening in their environment. That can range from connecting it to a doorbell wirelessly to flash a light if your doorbell rings so that you are aware that there’s a sound and someone’s at your door to a vibration, so a little disc that you can place under your mattress that will vibrate your bed or your pillow when your alarm goes off, or if a smoke detector happens to go off, or if your system is alerting you to carbon monoxide, you can get a flashing light, you can get an amplified signal, you can get a vibration, or you can even get a screen that shows you the word smoke or carbon monoxide or door. So there are devices that are out there to not just provide you enhanced sound, so we talked about amplification and making sound louder so that you can hear it better, but also giving you those alternative forms of awareness so that you’re able to recognize that there’s a sound in your environment or even just understanding what the sound is that you’re hearing, such as the captioning to let you know what it is.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, really important, and I would have to imagine that this is all part of that discussion with aging in place. A lot of people want to stay in their homes, what you just talked about. Those are things you need to give certain consideration to.
Dr. Noren, we’re going to have to leave it there. Always great to see you. Thanks for, I heard you loud and clear by the way, but always great to talk to you.
Thanks for sharing some of your advice. Have a great semester, and we’ll talk to you again very soon.
Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A , Towson University
Thank you, great seeing you.