Alert “06880” reader Dick Lowenstein writes:
I did not know I was hard of hearing until my uncle asked me to face away from him at the end of the hall in my grandmother’s apartment. He asked me questions to which I did not respond. I was 6 years old.
Doctor visits and hearing tests, followed by experimental radium and X-ray treatments, until finally what made a difference: lip reading and speech lessons.
Not until I was a 16-year-old high school senior did I get a hearing aid. That helped me comprehend college lectures. I wore that pendant receiver around my neck, with an earpiece to transmit amplified sounds, reluctantly.
As time progressed my hearing worsened. But technology progressed, and the aids became smaller. I went to binaural (both ears) aids built into my eyeglass template pieces, and finally to behind-the-ear models that I wear today. I function pretty well with them, but not in wartime or water!
New technology — better than what I currently use — is now here. Bluetooth and cell phone captioning are 2 examples. This Tuesday (October 2, 11 a.m., Westport Senior Center) the local chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America sponsors a presentation on these new technologies.
The event is free, open to the public — and captioned.
(For more information, email mczola@optonline.net)
A Bluetooth hearing aid is indistinguishable from other Bluetooth devices.
David Pogue is on CBS Sunday morning tomorrow taking about hearing aids. FYI
Jan
Jan Carpenter janc@144h.com 203 293 8889
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11 AM, of course… So working people need not apply.
And, think about it, “taking about hearing aids.”
Yeah, this is a subject close to my heart, and failing ears.
My observation is Live Caption sucks. The captioners usually have terrible vocabularies, and obviously screw-up words all the time.
I would Love to see a real-time, in-person captioning option. What I have tried so far fails miserably. Phones and pads have useless audio pickup, Apps usually require WiFi (telling me they are Logging this somewhere) and WiFi is not ubiquitous, yet.
I have a few $hundred in high-end microphones here now that for me are useless.
Post this again if they do an Evening/weekend version somewhere nearby.
I am so pleased that this is posted. I am not, as of right now, hard of hearing but I know people who are. I know first hand about the confusion that can happen when someone does not understand what was said or miss hears.
In addition I know someone was not diagnosed for years, not until middle school and the problems that the person endured. Finally, our own grandson had a hearing problem. His was simple and corrected by surgery at about 4 years of age. Until he was diagnosed and the problem corrected he had some behavioral problems, and his speech was delayed. I hope this program is repeated many times over and not just targeted at the elderly.
I started to lose my hearing about five years ago. I have two Phonix hearing aids that fit behind my ears and are supposed to be the best available. They’re good, but not perfect. I would love to attend the presentation on Tuesday, but I have a conflict at that time. If the presentation will be repeated nearby, please let me know.