equipment

Equipment for everyday living

Environmental aids is a term is used to describe equipment that assists people in hearing every day sounds around the home or at work.

Some equipment is designed for deaf people and some specifically for hard of hearing people. Most equipment can help both those that wear hearing aids and those that do not.

Environmental aids are designed for two situations. They either alert us to a sound that we tend to miss such as the doorbell, or they assist us to hear sounds that are too faint such as the TV or telephone.

Alerting

These can help by providing you with an alert signal in one of three ways. Firstly they may amplify the sound (extra loud doorbell), secondly they may add a visual indicator (phone flash) or third they may provide a tactile response (vibrating pad for an alarm clock or smoke dectector).

Some alerting devices use a combination of all three.

Assistive

These include equipment designed to assist us in hearing sounds such as the television, radio, telephone calls or face to face conversations.

Loops systems

A loop system is designed to assist a person with a hearing aid to hear more clearly in a room by switching their hearing aid to the T position. This arranges for the sound they hear to come from electromagnetic waves from the loop rather than sound waves direct to the aid microphone.

The loop is a kind of radio aerial, which transmits the signal to anyone situated within it. All NHS hearing aids and many private aids have a T position, which allows the user to receive the signal.

A list of manufacturers and suppliers of environmental aids is also available, although many products can also be obtained through your local social services department.

HC FACTSHEET Equipment for everyday living.

Further help and advice

Contact the Hearing Concern helpdesk, we may be able to refer you a trained Adviser in your area.