What are your favorite apps for hearing loss or tools you use?

Posted by futuretech @futuretech, Oct 2, 2020

Hi all, technology is moving so fast right now, and I have never felt like my audiologist has been on the cutting edge. Personally, I have had hearing loss for thirty years, I know there is not one solution or one specific hearing aid that solves everything. I'd love to learn about the small things people have found that have made a difference. For me zoom captions have helped a lot lately, but masks are hard when in public. Any tips are appreciated!

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@mickey5909

I have wanted to try the speech to text apps but this is my fear. Not being able to face the person speaking.

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They hear from whatever device you are using the app on, whether or not you are facing someone. just a distance element involved.

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@scottk

You are much more eloquent writer than me but that is exactly what I thought was going on. About 75% of my hearing loss is genetic...I have 5 other siblings and all of them suffer some degree of loss. The other 25% was industrial noise and not worrying about hearing protection until I was 40. It is interesting though that some people exposed to loud noise(shooting range for instance) never suffer the same degree of hearing loss!

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I recall a presentation many years ago at an HLAA convention that was given by a doctor who was with the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). The prevailing thought at that time was that a percentage of the population had a genetic susceptibility to noise induced hearing loss, while another percentage of the population did not. The problem was that those with the susceptibility did not know until it happened, and it was irreversible. The advice given was that 'If you have noise induced hearing loss, it is vital for you to protect your hearing from noise'. That was aimed at industry, sports like hunting, the military, etc. Now we know that tinnitus is associated with noise. Isn't it strange that noise pollution kind of goes by the wayside in regulations?

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@bookysue

Curious- I have being to conferences in Rochester, Utah and Minneapolis - I have talked to folks getting /having CI . Never heard this until I was on Twitter this past week. Is it true if the CI does not work; you cannot go back to hearing aids

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Yes, for the most part this is true. CI surgery generally damages normal residual hearing. You don't go back. There are hybrid CIs today that can preserve residual hearing. This is why, in most cases, a person is not a candidate for a CI unless the residual hearing they have is not very usable.

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@joyces

Reply to Julie: Thanks for mentioning that a CI may cancel out tinnitus! I've had constant humming in my useless right ear for decades, and may become a candidate for a CI if I lose much more hearing in my sorta good ear, so this is very good to know. Actually, I learned years ago to, for the most part, just ignore the 24/7 hum. I only realize it's there when someone writes about tinnitus.

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Joyces, just know there is no guarantee that tinnitus will go away once one has a CI. It may, and it may not. MInd, pretty much did.

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@mickey5909

I have wanted to try the speech to text apps but this is my fear. Not being able to face the person speaking.

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Don't let fear prevent you from trying speech to text apps. I have trouble watching a screen while trying to listen too. However, in some settings it's very helpful. Keep in mind, that Speech to text is not always verbatim. It makes errors just like you see on captioned TV programs now and then. It can be very helpful in the right situations though.

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@th1

They hear from whatever device you are using the app on, whether or not you are facing someone. just a distance element involved.

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Strange and tragic

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Speech to text needs a skill, which does improve with practice. Like multi-tasking, but have fun juggling lip reading also - I consider that a wonderful challenge. Works for me. Takes patience and practice

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@th1

Speech to text needs a skill, which does improve with practice. Like multi-tasking, but have fun juggling lip reading also - I consider that a wonderful challenge. Works for me. Takes patience and practice

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been using  transcribe  and  Caption call      transcribe  works like  T-Cole   with your phonewith having to wear our masks   it makes  hearing all the worse   and  even   these helps have problems  understanding  some   voices  

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Reply to Julie, re speech-to-text apps: I hear well enough to handle most social exchanges, but meetings that last hours with all technical talk are another matter. When there are new words or concepts, I need to "read" the speaker. (Of course, I haven't been to any tech meetings since masking started, which would be a REAL challenge.) So, for me, the app wasn't really necessary in casual situations and just got terribly confusing when I really needed the help. In addition, I haven't found an app that doesn't fail miserably for tech terms. It's one thing to have TV captions scrambled, but losing half the words in one sentence is really difficult. I've been spared for well over a year because I realized that the scientific project I was involved in was headed nowhere...all decisions required consensus, which meant that nothing difficult could be included in crafting a statewide solution. Conservation is great, but it's far from enough to turn things around when all the rivers report zero streamflows at some point every summer. Unfortunately, this project will determine how water is managed within Oregon far into the future, totally ignoring the greatest problems. I'm working in a more direct way to find a solution for the lack of water every summer on the Oregon Coast: no snow pack in the Coast Range, every little town full of tourists who need water.

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@joyces

Reply to Julie, re speech-to-text apps: I hear well enough to handle most social exchanges, but meetings that last hours with all technical talk are another matter. When there are new words or concepts, I need to "read" the speaker. (Of course, I haven't been to any tech meetings since masking started, which would be a REAL challenge.) So, for me, the app wasn't really necessary in casual situations and just got terribly confusing when I really needed the help. In addition, I haven't found an app that doesn't fail miserably for tech terms. It's one thing to have TV captions scrambled, but losing half the words in one sentence is really difficult. I've been spared for well over a year because I realized that the scientific project I was involved in was headed nowhere...all decisions required consensus, which meant that nothing difficult could be included in crafting a statewide solution. Conservation is great, but it's far from enough to turn things around when all the rivers report zero streamflows at some point every summer. Unfortunately, this project will determine how water is managed within Oregon far into the future, totally ignoring the greatest problems. I'm working in a more direct way to find a solution for the lack of water every summer on the Oregon Coast: no snow pack in the Coast Range, every little town full of tourists who need water.

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@joyces
I wonder if Otter would help with technical terminology. It was marketed for meetings and interviews and there may be a way to import any technical vocabulary that you use. I use the free version and find it the most accurate of the four apps I have loaded on my phone.

FL Mary

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