The Fundamental Safety Requirements of Individuals with Hearing Loss

One aspect of hearing loss which is seldom addressed is the simple decrease in safety of people who have hearing difficulties. For example, imagine that a fire starts in your home; if you’re like most people you have smoke detectors to sound an alert so that you and your family can evacuate the premises before a fire spreads too far and traps you. But this time imagine further, and contemplate what would happen if your smoke alarm goes off at night after you’ve gone to bed, having removed your hearing aid.

The smoke detectors standard in almost all homes and those mandated by city and local governments produce a very loud warning tone at a frequency between 3000 to 4000 Hz. This is fine for most people, but the fact is that these frequencies are among those most susceptible to age-related hearing loss, so older adults or people who have sustained other types of hearing loss cannot hear them. So if you’re among the more than eleven million Americans with hearing problems, there’s a good chance that you simply would not hear your smoke alarm even if you were awake.

To remedy this, there are a number of home safety products that have been re-engineered with the requirements of the hearing impaired in mind. For instance, there are smoke alarms that emit a low-frequency (520 Hertz) square wave tone that most hearing-impaired people can hear. For those who are totally deaf, or who are unable to hear whatsoever when they take out their hearing aids or turn off their cochlear implants (CIs) during the night, there are alarm systems that combine extremely loud noises, blinking lights, and vibrators that shake your bed to warn you. Several of these systems are intended to be incorporated into more complete home security systems to alert you to intruders or neighbors thumping furiously on your door in the event of an emergency.

To hear other sounds that may indicate danger, many hearing-impaired people have set up induction loops in their houses for boosting the performance of their hearing aids or CIs. An induction loop is merely a lengthy wire that encircles your living room, bedroom, or children’s rooms, which activates the telecoils embedded in your devices to raise the volume of sounds, and therefore may help you not to miss any important or emergency notifications.

Not to mention the humble telephone, which all of us tend to ignore until we need one, but which may become crucial in any kind of emergency situation. Most modern telephones now are available in models that are hearing aid and CI-compatible, which allow their use during either normal or extraordinary conditions. Moreover, there are telephones specifically designed for the hearing impaired which include speakerphones that operate at high volumes, and which may be voice-activated. These phones allow you to voice-dial for help in an emergency situation, or if you needed assistance of any kind. There are additional accessories for cellphones, such as vibrating wristbands that can alert you to an incoming telephone call even if you are asleep.

Other safety tips are less technical and more practical, like always keeping the phone numbers of fire departments, ambulance companies, health care providers, and emergency services handy. If we may be of assistance to you in helping to make your house safer for the hearing impaired, give us a call; we’ll be very happy to assist.