While the demographic of the average hearing aid user trends more and more into the baby boomer generation, a large percentage of our clients are over age 75. I find that although many of these seniors have technology skills that surpass my own, many of them are not familiar with all the “gidgets & gadgets” that are common today.
The word “Bluetooth” or “wireless” can often produce a negative reaction, but in truth, the manufacturers of devices that assist with TV, phones, and mobile computers have made the use of such devices extremely simple.
Throughout my 30 plus years of Audiology practice, the users of hearing aids have been plagued when trying to use the telephone, understand television, and even carry on a conversation in a restaurant or any situation where there is background noise.
While hearing aid technology itself has seen vast improvements in recent years with regard to sound quality and speech clarity, many difficulties remained when trying to hear well with phones, televisions, and mobile devices until new technology emerged.
Oticon’s ConnectLine devices have made it easier for users of hearing aids to listen to iPods, iPads, TVs, cell, landline and business phones, and many other devices. With the Oticon ConnectLine wireless microphone, users can finally hear conversation at the dinner table even in a noisy restaurant. The ConnectLine microphone is an effective alternative for improving speech understanding immersed in background noise that is small and easy enough to actually be useful in the real world.
Due to these recent advancements, phone conversations, TV, live performances, and music can be streamed directly into a user’s hearing aids allowing them to walk out of a room while watching TV and not miss out, walk all about the house while having a phone conversation, or hear a spouse from another room.
In addition the ConnectLine Streamer Pro contains a T coil, which allows the user to tune in directly to audio in any venue that has a “Loop” system in place. Locally, “Loop” systems are available in movie theaters, churches, and other public places.
Audiologists report that there is a huge population of seniors successfully using and reporting great benefits from all this technology. When they discover that using it is as simple as flipping the light switch, they are no longer intimidated and wonder what they would do without their wireless devices.
These wirelessly connected devices are the bridge providing a user the missing link between just hearing aids and the world of entertainment, information, and ideas.