For those who are hard of hearing or have a hearing loss of any severity, assistive listening devices are extremely beneficial to have. However, not everyone knows what devices are available and how they’re beneficial to those with hearing loss, whether it’s you yourself that experience it or it’s a loved one who has it.

A lot has changed and advanced over the years, meaning there’s a lot more out there to help those with hearing loss. With that being said, this guide will help explore the assistive listening devices available in the home and how they can be used in everyday settings.

What is an Assistive Listening Device?

An assistive listening device is used to help improve the hearing ability of people who experience hearing loss. It’s an opportunity for the individual to distinguish speech or sounds that they would not otherwise hear in noisy environments like a party for example.

Assistive listening devices provide personal connections to devices such as telephones, hearing aid-compatible phones and alerting devices to name but a few. These assistive devices amplify and enable these personal devices to help those with hearing loss, hear more clearly.

Types of Assistive Listening Devices

There are a number of assistive listening devices that are used to help those with hearing loss, reconnect with the world around them. Here are the types of assistive listening devices you may come across.

Amplified and Captioned Telephones

Through the use of amplified and captioned telephones, they’re used to turn up the volume where necessary to help hear the speech clearly. These devices don’t require you to have hearing aids either. They help a lot with high-pitched sounds, which is often the sound many people with hearing loss are missing. You’ve also got captioned phones that provide real-time captioning. This helps those with severe or profound hearing loss.

Hearing Aid-Compatible Phones

Hearing aid-compatible phones are something that by law, telephone manufacturers have to make. These phones use something called acoustic or telecoil coupling. Here’s a quick breakdown of both:

Acoustic coupling: Picks up and amplifies any sounds from the phone as well as the noise around you.
Telecoil coupling: Needs the hearing aid to have a telecoil and is useful for amplifying the phone signal only. It blocks out any background noise.

Telephone IP Relay Service

A telephone IP relay service is where people that have hearing and speech disabilities, make and receive calls using an operator as the middle person. The user will type messages on their device with an internet connection and the operator then reads the messages out loud to the other individual.

Television Amplifiers

For those who spend a lot of time watching the television, being able to watch it with hearing loss can prove challenging. Turning up the television isn’t always ideal, especially as it can impact everyone else’s hearing in the room. Instead, having a television amplifier is great and can work for those even without hearing aids.

Alerting Devices

Alerting devices are useful for those who are looking to stay protected wherever they go because not everything is audibly present for those with hearing loss. These alerting devices will rely on amplified sounds and any visual cues, as well as vibrations to alert you of anything you need to be aware of. From doorbell notifications to your morning alarm waking you up for work, alerting devices certainly come in useful.

Not only that but they can protect you from danger, such as alerting you to a smoke alarm or carbon monoxide detector going off.

The Benefits of ALDs

There are some great benefits of assistive listening devices that can be used in your home or in any other everyday setting. These include:

Provides clarity for both music and speech which is useful for television.
Helps isolate the signal to one room – beneficial for private conversations.
Freedom from other interferences where transmission occurs.
A wire-free reception, meaning you can sit anywhere in regard to events.

If you’re looking to get more guidance on hearing aids and using assistive listening devices, then it’s worth getting in touch with an audiologist. Using the services of Hearing & Balance Services of Reston might be just what you or a loved one needs to get the support they’re after.

With an audiologist, you can get all of the information regarding assistive listening devices and the benefits they could have for your hearing loss experiences. Give us a call at 703-260-6192 today, to find out how we can help you or your loved ones with hearing loss.