Resources and Organizations to Help You With Hearing Problems
SERVICES
* Hearing test: Exams, which take 30 to 40 minutes and cost $60 to $90, are covered by most health plans if you go through your doctor. Your doctor can refer you to an audiologist, or you can call the American Speech-Language-Hearing Assn., the American Academy of Audiology ([800] 222-2336), or your state licensing board.
* Hearing aids: Some fit in the ear canal and can barely be seen. New models, including implantable aids, are under development. If you have hearing loss in both ears, it’s recommended you use two aids to better help you hear in noisy settings. Hearing aids won’t make hearing normal, and there will be a period of adjustment. Keep trying till a hearing aid works for you. Although prices range from several hundred to several thousand dollars, aids are usually not covered by health plans.
* Cochlear or brain-stem implants: These devices, surgically implanted into the inner ear or the hearing part of the brain, can help a profoundly deaf person whose inner ear sensory cells or auditory nerve is not functioning. Brain-stem implants are still undergoing clinical trials. Implants generally work best in people who have not been deprived of sound for many years.
* Hearing assistance technologies: Assistive listening devices, available free of charge in many public venues, bring sounds from a movie soundtrack or a microphone right up to your ear. They are very useful in private settings as well. Also, some phones can amplify voices or allow one to read and send text instead of sound. And alarm clocks, smoke detectors, phones and doorbells that vibrate or flash are widely available. You can learn more about such devices by contacting Self Help for Hard of Hearing People. Or go to https://www.audiology.org/ross/rosshat.htm for a well-known audiologist’s review of this topic.
* Coping classes and support groups: Generally inexpensive and sometimes free, these teach hard-of-hearing people and relatives how to improve the quality of their lives. Attending support groups also can help, as can online discussion groups, many catering to specialized sections of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.
* Hearing dogs: Dogs that are trained to alert their owners to sounds such as doorbells, ringing phones, alarm clocks, beeping microwaves, smoke detectors and crying babies. To be eligible, a candidate must have a high degree of hearing loss and not own other dogs because they might interfere with the hearing dog’s job performance.
* Telephone relay service: Available in every state, this allows people to talk on the phone even when one party can’t hear. As the hearing person talks, the words are typed by an operator. The non-hearer then reads them and speaks back to the hearer. Either party can initiate the call. Look for the 800 number in the front pages of your phone book.
* Captioning: Spoken words are typed by trained transcribers and displayed on a screen so that people who can’t hear can follow the proceedings. Other forms of captioning are available for TVs and at some movie theaters. For more information, contact Tripod Captioned Films (https://www.tripod.org.) locally at (818) 972-2080.
In the L.A. area, the Sherman Oaks General Cinema (818) 986-3078, 4500 Van Nuys Blvd., offers rear-window captioning, in which words are displayed on a screen in front of you. (Go to https://www.mopix.org.)
* The law. Through the Americans with Disabilities Act, you have the right to communication access in public facilities, such as theaters, courtrooms and hotels, and can request services such as note-takers, TTY phones, assistive listening devices, sign language interpreters and more. In the workplace, you can ask for reasonable accommodations, such as assistive listening devices and special phones, to help you be a productive employee. Familiarize yourself with these and other laws.
ORGANIZATIONS
These organizations can provide information about hearing loss, hearing protection and how to get help.
* American Speech-Language- Hearing Assn. (https://www.asha.org): Voice and teletypewriter (TTY), (800) 638-8255.
* American Tinnitus Assn. (https://www.ata.org): (800) 634-8978.
* Assn. of Late-Deafened Adults (https://www.alda.org/): TTY, (404) 289-1596.
* Cochlear Implant Assn. (https://www.cici.org/): Voice, (202) 895-2781.
* Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers (HEAR) (https://www.hearnet.com/): (415) 431-3277.
* Hope For Hearing Foundation (https://hope4hearing.org/): (310) 370-1060.
* House Ear Institute/House Ear Clinic (https://www.hei.org/): Voice, (213) 483-4431; TTY, (213) 484-2642.
* National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (https://www.nih.gov/nidcd/): Voice, (301) 496-7243; TTY, (301) 402-0252.
* Oregon Hearing Research Center and Tinnitus Clinic (https://www.ohsu.edu/ohrc/): Voice, (503) 494-8032 (center) and (503) 494-7954 (tinnitus clinic); TTY: (503) 494-0910.
* Self Help for Hard of Hearing People (https://www.shhh.org): Voice, (301) 657-2248; TTY, (301) 657-2249. For local chapters, contact Leo W. Maggio. Voice/TTY, (818) 340-1503.