-  Only about one out of five people who would benefit from a hearing aid actually uses one.

-  Hearing aids typically cost thousands of dollars, require multiple visits to specialists and often aren't covered by health insurance. 

-  Untreated hearing loss is associated with cognitive decline, dementia and other harms. 

Current issues with hearing aids

*  The main factor influencing hearing aid price is the device’s technology. Over time, consumer electronics and technology have become more advanced, with product prices coming down.


*  However, the cost of hearing aids has seemingly stayed level, which could be due to technological advances and the inclusion of extra features over just a few years.


*  A study suggests that the consistently high cost of hearing aids, combined with the lack of help with costs, contributes to fewer people purchasing them.

What influences hearing aid price?

In Chapter 7, Tsung-Lun Alan Wan uses Critical Discursive Psychology to analyze how Hard of Hearing adults in Taiwan construct Cochlear Implants (CIs) as superior to Hearing Aids (HAs). The author demonstrates that participants frame HAs as shameful symbols of disability, while positioning CIs as desirable technologies that confer an "abled" identity. Wan argues that this discourse establishes a binary between the "abled" CI user and "disabled" HA user, ultimately reinforcing the ideology of audism and the medical model of disability.

Chapter 7: Formulating (Dis)Ability

A hearing aid is a small electronic device worn in or behind the ear that can help deal with mechanical hearing problems, such as conductive hearing loss. It functions by amplifying incoming sound waves to make the vibration of the eardrum and the movement of the ossicles more likely to occur.

Pepperdine University

Google

For people that are hard of hearing or deaf, it is important that sounds are able to be understood through other means. Often times, subtitles or a transcript are included for people that are hard of hearing.

Auditory Accessibility

Conductive hearing loss is a type of auditory impairment characterized by a failure in the transmission of sound energy to the cochlea. This condition specifically involves problems with the mechanical components of the ear, such as a failure in the vibration of the eardrum and/or a failure in the movement of the ossicles.

Conductive Hearing Loss

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. (2017). Hearing aids. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing-aids

Hearing Aids

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Subtitles are a written translation of dialogue that is displayed while the audio is playing. This can help make auditory information accessible to those who are hard of hearing or deaf. This can be also useful for people who may be unable to play the sound out loud, unable to distinguish what someone is saying, or may speak a different language than the one spoken in the audio.

Subtitles for People Who Are Hard of Hearing or Deaf

Deaf sensitivity training gives an overview of Deaf culture and effective communication strategies. Participants learn that American Sign Language (ASL) is a distinct language and may be many deaf people’s native language.

Deaf Sensitivity Training

Communication Access Realtime Translation is a live closed cpationing service that prints out what is being said, for those who prefer to read text.


CART Services

Sign language interpreting services include training interpreters at the initial and advanced level and conducting community outreach.

Sign language interpreting services

Assistive listening devices (ALDs) are devices that can be used along with your hearing aids to enhance your listening experience and provide extra help in challenging listening situations.

- Enhance hearing and sound quality in noisy or challenging listening environments
- Offer substantial hearing benefits when used with your hearing aids or without.
 

Assistive listening devices

A cochlear implant is a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing.

-  A microphone, which picks up sound from the environment.
-  A speech processor, which selects and arranges sounds picked up by the microphone.
-  A transmitter and receiver/stimulator, which receive signals from the speech processor and convert them into electric impulses.
-  An electrode array, which is a group of electrodes that collects the impulses from the stimulator and sends them to different regions of the auditory nerve.

Cochlear Implants

Captioning is the process of displaying text while a video is being played. Typically, the text will be a transcription of the video's audio, noting who is speaking along with sound effects and important musical cues. This helps to make films, television shows, and other video recordings accessible to those who are hard of hearing or deaf.

Captioning

There are many types of TRS available for people with hearing and speech disabilities that allow for them to communicate by telephone in a way that is equivalent to communication used by hearing people. 

Telecommunications Relay Services

American Sign Language (ASL) is the primary mode of communication for many deaf individuals in the United States. It is a complete visual language, relying entirely on visual signs and gestures without any verbal components.

American Sign Language (ASL)

Conductive hearing loss can be caused by physical blockages in the ear canal, a hole in the tympanic membrane, problems with the ossicles, or the presence of fluid between the eardrum and cochlea.

Causes of Conductive Hearing Loss

An individual visits an audiologist complaining of muffled hearing in one ear. The audiologist performs a test using a vibrating tuning fork. When the base of the tuning fork is placed on the bone directly behind the ear, the individual can hear the sound clearly. However, when the tuning fork is held in the air next to the ear canal, the sound is barely audible. Based on these results, what is the most likely explanation for the hearing impairment?

Analyze the findings in the case study below to determine the nature of the patient's hearing impairment. Explain which part of the auditory process is most likely failing and why.

Learn Before

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Learn After