Awesome article in The Conversation here by @Srgurr on just this very topic:
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Thanks Nathan I was surprised how many people were interested over 9.3 k hits in a week.
Lol I was too shy to post it here!
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loved the article highlighted by @nathenK, really good read.
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Hi Sally, this is a fantastic article - it is interesting in Audiology where wearing ear devices (airpods etc.) has increasingly becoming more normal but we are no closer to removing the stigma associated with hearing loss and hearing aids. Something simple like a health professional knowing someone has a hearing loss would go a long way in my mind.
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Thank you, It is interesting one of the barriers I find is there is just not one solution for all and we need to work around and with that in mind.
Feel free to chat any time, I have a ±40% hearing loss in one ear as well so it would be interesting to compare notes.
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Something I find useful is bone conduction headphones and I do get some interesting looks. I don’t want to cut out all of the traffic noise while using voice navigation.
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Great to hear you found a good solution, there are a lot more options out there that it can be a bit overwhelming! You raise a point that I am really interested in watching over the future, how will we socially react to people who are wearing headphones to actually hear things around them better?
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Now that would be cool. If you ever want to research, I have just the person at AUT I could link you with. I must admit, I get overwhelmed when there is glare, a lot of noise, and I use a hearing aid (I tend not to when I need to navigate traffic as it gets too much).
I’m tempted to go looking for headphones research now just because I am interested. But alas, I have a lot of marking to do.
You are also correct with the overwhelming sensory input.
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This may change as it becomes known you can blue tooth to phones etc so can be used as head phone as well. With all the ear bud use we will need augmented hearing much younger I would think. Question, is the ear bud technology making hearing aid technology any cheaper?
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Hi @Yeok thats a good point - everything will be bluetooth enabled from now on, which creates opportunities for us to transition to bluetooth audio sharing rather than our old hearing loop set ups - but its not quite there yet and I don’t know how they will manage audio privacy as you wouldnt want audio signals just sent to your devices.
On the cost side - in many ways no for hearing aids, but we are seeing the convergence of headphones/ear buds and hearing aids. Headphones/ear buds (hearables) are adding hearing enhancement features and hearing aids are introducing devices with form factors like ear buds and with features like headphones/buds. The introduction of Costco will likely shake the hearing aid prices up (they will have much cheaper options for hearing aids) and you will likely see a new area develop for hearables developed by hearing aid manufacturers targeted towards people with mild losses.
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I need that, a hearable for mild loss.
The worthiness of co-design and a possibility lens, while only some of these innovations are related to technology and health I think this programme needs a shout along with the entrepreneurs with access needs.
Also, there is a youtube video - it is long but the presentations about the initiatives start at 18 mins in.
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