Wednesday, April 24, 2002

Telephone service and hearing loss

The telephone can be a frustrating experience for people with hearing loss even though the phone was originally developed by Alexander Graham Bell as a device to help people with hearing loss.

People with milder hearing loss up to 40 decibels of hearing loss, perhaps can hear fairly well with most telephones, even without help from a hearing aid. That's because the phone is also an amplifier, so the telephone voice can actually be louder than a normal voice.

People with more severe hearing loss need to use a telephone amplifier (portable or built-in) or a hearing aid telecoil. A telecoil is an electromagnetic coil built into a hearing aid that picks up and amplifies the electromagnetic field transmitted by a telephone.

Although a telecoil can be very helpful, there are a number of drawbacks. You must move or press a switch to activate the t-coil. The amplified signal is usually not as loud, so the hearing aid volume may need to be adjusted. You need to place the telephone in the right position near the hearing aid.

Telephone relay services

Due to the severity of their hearing loss, about 4 million Americans cannot use the telephone, even with a telecoil or telephone amplifier. These people have depended on text telephone (TTY) services, but until recently, they could only communicate with someone who also had a TTY device. In recent years, relay services, which permit communication between TTY and non-TTY users, became available in some locations.

But as of Oct. 1, TTY users have access to telecommunication relay services (TRS) nationwide. TRS allows telephone communication between someone with severe hearing (or speech) difficulties and anyone else, even if they don't have a TTY device. The service is reached by dialing 711 from any phone in the United States, including public pay phones. Once connected, the relay operator "translates" between spoken and typed messages.

For example, a deaf individual can dial 711, reach the relay operator, and get connected to his or her party. The deaf caller then types the message and the relay operator translates the message into speech. The called party then responds orally and the relay operator transcribes the spoken message into text, which appears on the deaf individual's text display.

With the new nationwide 711 service, people who depend on relay services no longer need to keep track of dozens of different numbers across the country. The 711 access is available from regular telephones, cell phones and public payphones.

Andrew Waits

Clinical audiologist