by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A lady asked:
What is the best cell phone for a person with a hearing problem?
That question is impossible to answer because there are so many variables. Many of these variables are subjective—so only you can answer them. It is like asking people, “What is the best tasting food?” You will get all sorts of answers—some might say filet mignon, or angel-food cake or spinach or eggplant—and they would all be right—for that person.
Other variables are more objective—and depend on how you plan to couple the phone output to your ears. Thus, the answer to your question is “It depends…”
It depends on your likes and dislikes.
It depends on whether you wear hearing aids, or want to use the phone with your bare ears.
It depends on the degree of you hearing loss.
It depends on the shape of your hearing loss curve.
It depends on your word recognition (discrimination) scores.
It depends whether you are a techno-geek and like lots of “goodies”, or want a plain simple cell phone.
It depends on whether you need texting capabilities, or just normal phone service.
It depends on whether you are going to be using the phone in noise, or just in quiet places.
It depends on your own personal subjective feelings of what sounds good to you. Phones vary in the quality of their sound.
It depends on what features you need in a cell phone and those you would like to have.
I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.
Personally, here are the key things I look for in a cell phone.
1. Loud volume (although no phone has the volume I need).
2. Bluetooth connection.
3. Headset jack—hopefully standard 2.5 mm jack.
4. M4/T4 rating.
Items 2 and 3 are necessary if you want to connect your phone to your hearing aids.
Item 4 is necessary so the phone doesn’t cause interference in your hearing aids.
My LG Senior Value Phone was perfect. It was just a regular flip phone with normal capabilities (texting, browser, phone book, etc.) with super good tone and volume. It didn’t look like a child’s toy with oversized buttons and wasn’t “easy to use,” which this Mensa member does not need. In other words, it was made for the hard of hearing, not the blind or the stupid. I can’t find anything like it online, and it recently quit working because it’s 3G. Is there anything like that available now?
Hi Shirley:
What exactly is it that you want on a phone that a standard iPhone or Android phone doesn’t give you?
There are apps available that help all kinds of hard of hearing people.
If you need more volume, are you wearing hearing aids or not? That makes a difference as to your choices.
Cordially,
Neil
What I want if a phone that is amplified, with adjustable volume, as much like my LG as possible. I have but don’t wear hearing aids, don’t like them for good reasons but too much to go into here. Definitely a flip phone, easy to carry in my purse without fear of damaging it. No “extreme elderly” features like oversized buttons or “easy” use (few features). I can’t believe there is nothing like that available now. In 2011 I just walked into a store and bought one.
The LG was a smaller phone, which was good to carry. It had wonderful tone and volume and was easy to hear and understand what people were saying. But I’ve scoured the internet, and am about to hook up an unamplified phone on which I can have at least one-way conversations like “Help, the car is stuck and I am freezing to death.” I was stuck for two hours last Wednesday at 17 below zero and wound up with very bad hypothermia. A cell phone would have prevented it. I am going for unamplified rather than endure that again.
If they ever make a good phone that is amplified, I will certainly get it instead. Many, even most, people with hearing loss do not have visual or cognitive issues. We just need a louder phone. It’s incredible that there is nothing available for us now.
The short answer is, “A standard phone is not loud enough or me. I want a phone that I can hear on.”
Hi Shirley:
I think all modern cell phones have adjustable volume on them. The problem is that if you have a severe hearing loss, the maximum volume isn’t enough. And since there aren’t any cell phones of which I know that are made specifically for hard of hearing people with more severe losses, you have to innovate and adapt. That is what I have done. I can’t hear on cell phones either.
Here are three solutions that I have used.
1. You can have the calls captioned so you can read them on your cell phone screen. Then it doesn’t matter whether you are totally deaf or are hard of hearing–you still get the message.
2. You can get the “HearAll” accessory that is a separate device that uses Bluetooth to receive the call from your phone. It was specifically designed to help hard of hearing people hear on their phones. I know that because I helped design it.
3. You can attach a cell phone amplifier to the back of your phone with velcro and plug in earbuds into the amplifier and hear that way.
None of these are as simple as holding the phone up to your ear, but they all work. They certainly work for me.
And you could also use the cell phone to text messages or send email–so there are two other ways to communicate without being able to hear.
If you want to learn more about any of these methods, I’ll be glad to help you.
Cordially,
Neil