Hearing Loss Technology Solutions for Albuquerque Hearing Impaired
Is hearing loss keeping you isolated or making it hard to function? Does your own home feel unsafe because you cannot hear properly? Improve your access to audible information and maintain more independence with technology solutions for the hard of hearing or deaf from the Albuquerque hearing assistance experts at ATS Resources, a nonprofit organization.
Hearing loss solutions most often use technology to increase volume, improve clarity and make it possible to receive an alert. Being able to hear more clearly and receive potentially life-saving warnings allows you to function with more independence. With so many hearing impaired technology options available, ATS Resources is truly your local independent living resource center in Albuquerque.
Your family, friends and caregivers will appreciate their increased ability to communicate more easily as you understand their words more clearly.
Albuquerque Hearing Resources Turn Up the Volume, Increase Clarity, Provide Tone and Pitch Control
Amplifiers, or personal listeners, are available for improving access to telephones, one-on-one conversations, large and small groups, and television listening. Personal listeners will increase volume and improve clarity by removing unwanted background noise. However, improving your hearing is not always about amplification.
Having tone and pitch control of the amplifier is often key to ensuring that clarity of sound is achieved. All of ATS Resources’ assistive hearing devices have volume and tone/pitch controls.
Another option to amplify sound is to use a T-coil in a hearing aid. With a t-coil, you can receive sound through a Loop system. Loop systems are often found in churches, but they also work to improve hearing in a home, car, bus, or other public venue. ATS Resources installs listening systems in homes, churches, hotels, meeting rooms, conference centers, etc. Loop system rentals are also available as Albuquerque hearing loss solutions for large and small groups.
If a portable system is necessary or if using interpreters for multiple languages, an FM system is ideal. With an FM system, the public address (PA) system sends sound through a transmitter and the listener uses a receiver. The listener can be up to 400 feet away and receive the sound directly into a headset or neckloop. Neckloops are used by individuals who have hearing aids equipped with a T-Coil. An infrared system behaves like an FM system, but offers the highest level of confidentiality.
Variety of Alert Devices Among Independent Living Resource in Albuquerque
In the event of a fire or another emergency evacuation situation in your home or in the workplace, an alert system could save your life. Alerting devices include lamps that flicker, strobes, loud horns/sirens and shake alerts.
Alerts may be auditory, visual or tactile to inform a hard of hearing person of day-to-day independent living necessities such as a phone ringing, someone ringing the doorbell, a dog barking, a baby crying, a smoke detector alarm, or other type of sound. Auditory signals will typically come in a high or low pitch and will have significant volume options up to 90+ decibels. Visual alerts can be a flickering lamp or strobe, such as a smoke detector with strobe. A tactile alert might be a shake awake that wakes you from sleep, a pager, or other vibrating device.
Paging systems that vibrate or offer text are ideal for keeping seniors in communication with caregivers or hard of hearing employees informed when they are being paged.
Hearing Loss Technology Solutions for Albuquerque Hearing Impaired
Is hearing loss keeping you isolated or making it hard to function? Does your own home feel unsafe because you cannot hear properly? Improve your access to audible information and maintain more independence with technology solutions for the hard of hearing or deaf from the Albuquerque hearing assistance experts at ATS Resources, a nonprofit organization. Hearing loss solutions most often use technology to increase volume, improve clarity and make it possible to receive an alert. Being able to hear more clearly and receive potentially life-saving warnings allows you to function with more independence. With so many hearing impaired technology options available, ATS Resources is truly your local independent living resource center in Albuquerque. Your family, friends and caregivers will appreciate their increased ability to communicate more easily as you understand their words more clearly.
Albuquerque Hearing Resources Turn Up the Volume, Increase Clarity, Provide Tone and Pitch Control
Amplifiers, or personal listeners, are available for improving access to telephones, one-on-one conversations, large and small groups, and television listening. Personal listeners will increase volume and improve clarity by removing unwanted background noise. However, improving your hearing is not always about amplification. Having tone and pitch control of the amplifier is often key to ensuring that clarity of sound is achieved. All of ATS Resources’ assistive hearing devices have volume and tone/pitch controls. Another option to amplify sound is to use a T-coil in a hearing aid. With a t-coil, you can receive sound through a Loop system. Loop systems are often found in churches, but they also work to improve hearing in a home, car, bus, or other public venue. ATS Resources installs listening systems in homes, churches, hotels, meeting rooms, conference centers, etc. Loop system rentals are also available as Albuquerque hearing loss solutions for large and small groups.
If a portable system is necessary or if using interpreters for multiple languages, an FM system is ideal. With an FM system, the public address (PA) system sends sound through a transmitter and the listener uses a receiver. The listener can be up to 400 feet away and receive the sound directly into a headset or neckloop. Neckloops are used by individuals who have hearing aids equipped with a T-Coil. An infrared system behaves like an FM system, but offers the highest level of confidentiality.
Variety of Alert Devices Among Independent Living Resource in Albuquerque
In the event of a fire or another emergency evacuation situation in your home or in the workplace, an alert system could save your life. Alerting devices include lamps that flicker, strobes, loud horns/sirens and shake alerts. Alerts may be auditory, visual or tactile to inform a hard of hearing person of day-to-day independent living necessities such as a phone ringing, someone ringing the doorbell, a dog barking, a baby crying, a smoke detector alarm, or other type of sound. Auditory signals will typically come in a high or low pitch and will have significant volume options up to 90+ decibels. Visual alerts can be a flickering lamp or strobe, such as a smoke detector with strobe. A tactile alert might be a shake awake that wakes you from sleep, a pager, or other vibrating device. Paging systems that vibrate or offer text are ideal for keeping seniors in communication with caregivers or hard of hearing employees informed when they are being paged.
Increase Volume and Decrease Background Noise.
No two eardrums are alike. There are two factors involved with hearing clearly: 1) Tone/pitch and 2) Volume. You may have experienced a situation where a male voice could be heard, but not the female voice. This is because hearing loss has occurred in the high pitch range. The high frequency hair cells are most easily damaged as a result of loud sounds and will impact hearing high pitched sounds like hearing the beeps of a key pad, and the sounds of crickets, birds chirping or a female voice.
Hearings Aids - Friend or Foe?
Don't give up on your hearing aids just yet. You've spent good money to hear the world around you. Chances are your audiologist just needs a bit more information and your hearing aids need a slight adjustment to give you the sound quality you are seeking.
- Real Ear Measurement: allows the audiologist to determine exactly what is coming through the hearing aid, rather than rely on your feedback of hearing aid performance.
- Directional vs. Omni-directional hearing aid: a Directional Microphone focuses sound from a particular angle or position. Omni-Directional picks up sound from a 360o radius.
- Check current hearing aid for T-Coil: your current hearing aid may already have a T-Coil. It may not be activated or may still be on default, or factory settings. If your hearing aid does not already have the T-Coil, chances are good your audiologist can add this function to your current hearing aid(s).
- Request a Telephone Switch or T-Coil: a T-Coil will eliminate unwanted background noise and bring sound directly into your ear as if someone was speaking directly into your ear. You can use a T-Coil with your television, telephone, personal amplifiers, or in venues like a church, or shows at Popejoy.
- T-Coil programmed to fit your hearing loss: often times the default, or factory settings for a T-Coil are adequate; however, modiifying the T-Coil setting to best fit your hearing loss will improve the clarity of what you hear.
- Manual T-Coil vs. Automatic T-Coil: a manual T-coil allows you to turn off the hearing aid mic and use the T-Coil function in larger venues that have a Loop System. An Automatic T-Coil is designed to automatically activate when you bring the telephone to your ear, and can not be used in larger venues that might have a Loop System.
- Straight T-Coil vs. Microphone T-Coil: a Straight T-Coil blocks surrounding sound and allows only sound sent via the Loop System to enter the hearing aid/ear canal. A Microphone T-coil allows sound from the Loop System, as well as surrounding sound to enter the hearing aid.
The decibel, or dB, is a way of measuring sound levels. As a rule of thumb, 10dB equates to one times. A 20dB amplified phone offers approximately two times the volume of a standard telephone, and a 40dB phone offers approximately four times the volume.
A T-Coil, otherwise known as a Telephone Switch or Telecoil, is an added function of a hearing aid and is placed within the hearing aid, either at time of purchase or at a later date by an audiologist. T-coils pick up magnetic signals, just as a microphone picks up an acoustic signal; the T-coil sends the signal to the hearing aid for amplification and then directly into the ear. Most of the newer hearing aids already come equipped with a T-Coil. See your audiologist to ensure the T-Coil settings are turned on and programmed to fit your hearing loss. If your hearing aid does not have the T-Coil feature, a T-Coil may be inserted for as little as $250.
A Loop is the most cost effective way to make a large area fully accessible to anyone with a hearing loss. Anyone with a hearing aid and a T-Coil setting can receive the sound being fed through your PA system directly into the hearing aid – as if someone was speaking directly into the ear. If the hearing aid does not have a T-Coil, the listener would use a small Receiver and a headset. The Loop itself is a thin radio wire that is placed under carpeting, tile, baseboards, or even laid within the foundation. and runs the perimeter of the room. Sound from the microphone is fed through the radio wire and transmitted wirelessly into the T-Coil equipped hearing aid or Receiver. Background noise is mostly eliminated and sound clarity is improved.
An FM System allows the same accessibility as a Loop System; however, is most ideal for courtrooms, classrooms, the workplace, or large meetings/conferences. The person speaking wears something similar to a lapel mic and the person listening has a Receiver and headset (or a neckloop if the listener has a hearing aid with a T-Coil). The person speaking may be heard up to 80 feet away. FM Systems have the ability to communicate over pre-determined channels – offering a degree of confidentiality.
Hearing aids are often removed at night leaving you unaware in the event of an emergency. Another common occurrence is missing a phone call or a visitor; however, not everyone prefers turning up the volume. Other options might include a lamp flicker when the doorbell is rung, a pager that notifies you of a smoke detector, or a vibrating disc to notify you of an incoming call. Signalers, or Alerting Devices, come in all shapes and sizes and bring you back into the loop.
