by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A lady explained:
My mother-in-law is hard of hearing and only has a cell phone now. She doesn’t hear it ring all of the time and I am trying to find something that will amplify the ring on the phone, or something that will notify her that it is ringing. Do you know where I may find something like this?
If she is carrying the cell phone around with her—then set it on vibrate mode and have her wear it close to her body somewhere so she can feel the vibration.
Also, if she has the right cell phone and service provider, she may be able to add flashing lights to her cell phone to get her attention. (See the article “Flashing Lights for Cell Phones Revisited“.)
If she basically leaves her cell phone on the counter or coffee table, or bed table, or wherever at home then having the cell phone on vibrate won’t help. However, I have just the device she needs in that case—the Cell Phone Ring Alerter. It does three things—flashes a strobe, makes the ring much louder and at night with the optional vibrator to put under her mattress, it will shake her awake.
In her case, probably a good solution would be for her to have two Ring Alerters. Put one on her bed table in the bedroom hooked up with the bed vibrator. Place the other one where she spends most of her time. Have it sitting in plain sight so she can see the strobe light when it flashes as well as hear the loud ringer.
It is easy to use this Ring Alerter—just place the cell phone on the cradle on the front of the Ring Alerter. That’s all there is to it. To answer the phone, you just pick up the cell phone and answer it normally.
This ring alerter also works for landline phones too. You plug it into the wall phone jack and plug the phone into the Ring Alerter. Whenever the phone rings, it will alert you just the same as if it were a cell phone. In fact, it will work with both phones at the same time.
I have been having difficulty hearing the phone when it rings…my cell phone
Hi Sunny:
Sounds like you need to go to an audiologist and have your hearing checked.
But there are two things to try. First, is your ring volume turned all the way up so you can hear it better. Second, go through all the ring tones and choose the one that sounds loudest to you. For example, in my case, the old bell ringing sound is the loudest for my hearing loss so that is what I use. Also, keep vibration turned on so you can feel it even if you don’t hear it.
Cordially,
Neil
Need a light on a house phone to tell when phone is ringing
Hi Brenda:
That’s not a problem. The RF-200 unit will work with both landline and cell phones. You just plug it into any wall phone jack and whenever the phone rings the lights will flash and it has a loud ringer too. The unit you want can be seen at https://hearinglosshelp.com/shop/rf-200-cell-phone-alerter-with-optional-bed-shaker/ .
The problem with light flashers is that during the day especially they don’t seem very bright so if you aren’t looking at the phone you can easily miss the flashing lights and thus miss the call. If you are facing the phone flasher, you won’t miss the bright blue lights flashing.
Some phones for hard of hearing people have strobe lights built in–but again–they are not very bright, especially in the daytime.
Cordially,
Neil
I have major hearing problems and I wear a Xiaomi mi fit band. It’s great. You can set it to vibrate when the phone rings. It’s not expensive. I use it as an alarm clock too.