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!

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Hearing Loss Support Group.

imallears | @imallears | Mar 5, 2021

In reply to @mickey5909 "I have wanted to try the speech to text apps but this is my fear. Not..." + (show)

@mickey5909
Hi,
It does take practice using speech to text apps and some apps are faster than others in recording. But you soon become a very fast speed reader and mostly you need just to scan the content to get the gist of what is being said. I have no problem looking back and forth from the screen to the person. You really don’t have your head down looking at the screen all the time. They are free to try and most people are patient. I have come across so many normal hearing people who are having their difficulties understanding through masks. Try them. I can’t imagine myself functioning independently in these masked times without using them.

FL Mary

Julie, Volunteer Mentor | @julieo4 | Mar 5, 2021

In reply to @joyces "Reply to Julie, re speech-to-text apps: I hear well enough to handle most social exchanges, but..." + (show)

@joyces Thank you for the good work you're doing. Meetings are always difficult for people with hearing loss. It's very different when they are in person than when they are online. For in person meetings, you have a right to have communication access. You do have to request it in advance, according to the American's with Disabilities Act. (ADA) Sometimes it means the provision of technology like FM systems, Infrared systems or hearing loops. CART (computer assisted realtime transliteration) is also an accommodation. With CART, a person with court reporting/stenography skills provides the written transcript on a screen. It's basically real time captioning. Providers of CART are difficult to fine, but they are out there. If people would request CART more often, more providers would exist.

We all know that hearing loss is a disability. We know the ADA exists, but we don't use it. COMMUNICATION ACCESS is just as important as mobility access. Far too many people think that providing a sign language interpreter provides the access we need. That's far from true because less than 10% of people with hearing loss know or use American Sign Language (ASL).

We must know what is available and ask for it. We have a lot of educating to do.

joyces | @joyces | Mar 5, 2021

In reply to @imallears "@joyces I wonder if Otter would help with technical terminology. It was marketed for meetings and..." + (show)

FL Mary, thanks for the tip. I did try Otter, found it almost as hopeless with tech stuff as Live Transcribe. One benefit of Zoom meetings is that it's not possible for several people to speak at the same time. <g> The meetings that gave me fits often had an expert who stood up and rattled off, say, the CFS rates for a given section of stream on various dates, or all the organic and inorganic components of a water sample. The topic was something the expert had spent years learning about, but even though the concepts were clear, details led to more questions. None of the experts were practiced speakers but people who spent time in the field (alone) or in the lab (alone).

joyces | @joyces | Mar 5, 2021

In reply to @julieo4 "@joyces Thank you for the good work you're doing. Meetings are always difficult for people with..." + (show)

reply to Julie: While I may have a right to communication access, for the most part it simply doesn't exist here on the Oregon coast. We have about one person per square mile in our county, little funding for anything, no public rooms or theaters with captioning available. I also have no cell reception at home, and my driveway's flooded for weeks every winter--but I have deer and elk and a heron and egret right outside my office window. Every day. Very hard to work when there's an elk standing not 10' from my desk! Deer often come and breathe on the glass, reminding me that they'd like me to come out and offer treats; several eat out of our hands. Not lots of traffic on our one-lane gravel road, but every day people stop and get out to take photos of the animals in our yard. We have no neighbors closer than a quarter mile. My husband calls the frequent problem of things getting done slowly "coast time." I gladly traded living on a lot in a big city for what I enjoy her, don't regret leaving some conveniences behind.

Julie, Volunteer Mentor | @julieo4 | Mar 5, 2021

In reply to @joyces "reply to Julie: While I may have a right to communication access, for the most part..." + (show)

@joyces I have many of the same lovely amenities in northern Minnesota and in Wisconsin, but I'm fortunate to also have good internet service and opportunities to advocate for the hard of hearing population. We all make choices we have to live with. Enjoy what you have accepted.

joyces | @joyces | Mar 5, 2021

Julie, when we first moved here full-time, it was annoying to stand in line at the supermarket (yes, we have ONE) while the clerk and the customer discussed their grandchildren, but I soon learned to appreciate how much more connected we are here. Since the forest fire just outside town last fall, most people in town have pitched in to help, something you don't see like this in cities. I've met many of the people who walk along our road, which is protected from onshore winds because we're in a little valley. When I lived in Portland, I didn't even know the people who lived across the street. Here, everyone is more relaxed and informal.
Even if you're in a less rural area than mine, you live in a beautiful part of the country where I'm sure you're not too far from places to enjoy natural things. I can't imagine how awful it must be to live in a city apt., especially these days!

Cheryl | @th1 | Mar 5, 2021

In reply to @joyces "reply to Julie: While I may have a right to communication access, for the most part..." + (show)

Sounds like you need to get together safely with your County AND State elected officials to tell them they need to comply with ADA and any other state or local provisions for disabled, and make them aware that almost 20% of their constituents are hearing challenged. Check with the Oregon Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services website, they have a "contact us" email button. They are for entire state. Let them help you with a local push for changes, don't give up, and best wishes! You can help so many others by doing this!