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Aids for hearing impaired people
There is now a considerable range of products available to enable you to maintain contact with the world, despite a loss of hearing. This is a round-up of some of the most commonly available products: please send us an email if you are looking for anything in particular that you can't find here - or if you come across something particularly useful that you think we should include.
Some suppliers of aids for hearing impaired people. Clicking on a highlighted name will open their showcase page in a new window:
21st Century Hearing
Bentley Fielden
Design for easier
living - Verko
Easylink UK
Force 10 Company
Geemarc Clearsound
Gordon Morris
LifeMax
Stagetext
Hearing
aid technology has improved markedly - particularly with the use of digital
rather than analogue sound processing, which enables the sound to be adjusted
more accurately, to suit both the listener's individual requirements,
and the circumstances in which they are listening - on the phone, in a
busy street, etc. Some digital aids adjust automatically to take account
of different conditions.
Digital hearing aids are available in two main types - behind the ear,
or BTE 
(left)
where a mould sits inside your ear, connected to the main body of the
aid which rests behind the ear; and in the ear, ITE, (right) or in the
ear canal, ITC, where the entire aid fits inside the ear. People with
very severe hearing loss or narrow ear canals may not be able to use these.
You can now buy disposable hearing aids, which fit right inside the ear canal, and are replaced when the battery runs out - about every 10 weeks. They come in fixed sizes, however, so don't suit everybody.
A
domestic induction loop is a smaller scale version of the loop systems
used in public spaces such as theatres and conference centres. A cable
encircles the room, and is fed by a loop amplifier (left), which picks
up the sound signal either by means of a microphone or by being directly
connected to the sound source. A magnetic field is produced which corresponds
to the sound produced, without the impact of the room's acoustic quirks
or any other noise. Within the loop, a person can pick up this sound with
their hearing aid switched to the 'T' setting. Domestic-scale induction
loops are also available for use in cars.
A
neckloop, such as Geemarc's CLA7 (shown right) enables hearing aid wearers
to obtain better sound from products such as mobile phones. Just like
the room loops described above, but with the advantage of portability,
the neckloop produces an ‘inductive’ signal that can be picked
up by a hearing aid that has a T setting and gives a clearer sound without
interference.
Easylink UK's smoke alarm system (left) combines the familiar smoke detector
which is mounted on the ceiling, with a vibrating pad, flashing strobe
light and control box. The pad and light respond to the smoke detector
to give a vibrating and visual alert, as well as the usual audible warning.
A
flashing light phone alert (right) gives the option of a clearly visible
flashing light and/or extra loud ring to signal an incoming phone call.
It may be combined with a portable telephone amplifier to boost the volume
of the call - used with or without a hearing aid.
A
neat alarm clock to place under the pillow - it vibrates to let
you know when it's time to wake up. This model also has an audible alarm,
and other features such as a backlit screen, temperature display and 'snooze'
feature.