Deaf and Hard of Hearing Technology For Home

This post contains affiliate links. Please read the disclosure for more details.

When exploring deaf and hard-of-hearing technology for the home, there are abundant devices that you can use to make your home the way you like it to be.

Our home is a place that we consider a sanctuary. I place that we feel the most comfortable and an expression of personality and mood. Owning a property is probably the biggest investment of your life. Unlike renters, you can make your home any way you want without permission. This article will show how you can make your home truly a home that includes your needs.

Phones

Owning a home means connecting with service providers like a plumber, electrician and many professional tradespeople to get repairs done around the house. Landlines, unlike smartphones, are still around and will not be leaving any time. They provide many benefits during emergency calls to help emergency operators locate the exact location of where you are. That’s just one of the many benefits but for someone with hearing loss, needing to understand what one is saying on the other line is crucial. Well, that’s if they are not a telemarketer. Otherwise, you can cleverly bring up your hearing loss to end the call quickly before you get buried into a long sales pitch.

US citizen-only technologies

Americans have government-funded programs that provide funds for companies to make technologies free for people with hearing loss. Some companies develop landline telephone that provides automated real-time captioning transcribing what the other person on the line is saying. One company is called InnoCaption. However, not all calls have automated captioning. Internet Protocol (IP), Captioned Telephone Service, allows another 3rd-party agent to listen in on the call and provides you with the caption services. These are the teletypewriter TTY of the modern days.

Smartphone usage

We can’t forget our smartphones which are always with us or available when we need them. With mobile phones and video chat tools, you can communicate via text or video instead of the phone. Video Relay Services can allow you to use an agent to help translate in sign language. But an automated real-time captioning app for your smartphone from brands like InnoCaption, Olelo and Phonak’s myCall-to-Text app for Phonak hearing aid users can help you provide a transcript of your caller on the other line.

Alerting Devices

Things happen when you least expect them, and alerting devices can help you be aware of the things around you. The devices are plenty and often used by many people with various degrees of hearing loss.

Doorbell

Your front door can be adapted for visual notifications. You can buy a video or motion detector at your local shop to identify any activity at your front door. Or you can install a designated device for people with hearing loss.

Smoke Detector

Smart smoke detectors have arrived on the market and are a great way to receive notifications of alarms on your smartphone. Still, other times, you can get an alerting system that provides but the visual and shaker to alert you at night.

Baby monitors

New moms are always trying to raise their kids as healthy human beings, which often means following the parenting rules of keeping your baby out of your room to avoid codependency. However, it can be hard for a parent with hearing loss because you rely on hearing your baby respond to their needs.

Other devices and advancements

Alerting systems can include intruder or glass-breaking detection, weather warning or telephone ringing. Yet recently, advancements have been made to bring other sounds, and new technologies have come to the market. There’s a trend of smart technologies that will transform the future of alerting devices, as we’re doing at Lisnen.

TV Listening Systems

If sounds travel inside your home in a way that makes it hard for you to hear the tv, or turning up the volume does nothing but get your hearing family complaining the tv is too loud, you will be happy to know that you’ll be able to tap into a listening device. Some are enabled through Bluetooth connection that helps those with hearing aids and cochlear implants to get the audio source right into their ear or around their neck, as with Behear, without the added background noises.

Home & Kitchen Appliances

It’s not that we are forgetful but often, having the ability to hear noises can alert us to what’s happening around us. However, attention to everything at every minute of the hour with limited senses is problematic for anyone to achieve. Not only can the kitchen be a really noisy space, but sometimes we need extra help to keep us on track without damaging our homes.

Kitchen Stove

Leaving your stove on can be damaging, especially when your food has caught fire. People who forget and leave the stove on can benefit from devices that monitor their stove activities or, if you have a gas stove, automatically turn it off when it starts leaking gas.

You don’t necessarily need to use your stove’s timer to time your food in the oven. Between your smartphone clock or a plug-in electric timer connected to an LED light, you’ll know when your food is ready.

Washer and Dryer

These days you don’t need to hear the beep to know your laundry has completed its cycle. Now you can have smart washing machines and dryers with apps that inform you when your laundry is done.

Fridge

Fridges make various sounds communicating various messages that we would not know what’s happening. Sometimes smart refrigerators are needed to make sense of all those noises. These electronics come with an app to notify you of anything you need to be aware of.

Tap Water

One of the difficulties of hearing loss is not being able to hear those soft sounds. You can use a sound recognition feature on apps, or replace all the faucets with an automatic motion-detection faucet. Consequently, if it is too late and water hits the floor, try using a water leak detector to notify you right from your app.

Sound Proof Art

If you have ever lived in a loft or places with high ceilings and large spaces with too little furniture, the sound bounces all over the place. While esthetically pleasing, these spaces make it hard to pick up a conversation. Our hearing aid or cochlear implant struggles to pick up sound with clarity. But having a sound absorption art or noise reduction curtains may help make your space easier to hear.

With so many possibilities

Our home can be a place where we are comfortable and at ease. Providing the necessary tools to adapt to our style and needs at any time.