Hearing Loss Association of Pittsburgh                                                                   June 2009

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Hearing Loss Association of Pittsburgh Meeting
Saturday, May 16, 2009

 

Many thanks to audiologist Deb Albaugh for exploring the topic Choosing a Cell Phone That Works for You at the May 16 meeting.  She covered the basics: M rating, T rating, and RF immunity level, but most importantly the consumer should test the cell phone for compatibility with his/her specific hearing aids, cochlear implant, or assistive device.  Locally some Verizon Wireless stores have active phones that you can use.  I visited the store on McKnight Road in the North Hills and was able to try out all the phones with my hearing aid on microphone and telecoil.  Deb distributed informative handouts “Hearing Aid Compatibility With Digital Wireless Cell Phones”, “How to Buy a Cell Phone when You Have a Hearing Loss” by Janice Schacter and “Basics on Buying Cell Phones When You Have a Hearing Loss”.  Copies will be available at future meetings and events.

~~Kathy Niemeyer

Hearing Loss Association of America Working for Fire Safety

 

HLAA submitted a grant proposal to the Department of Homeland Security on fire alarm safety. This was based on research conducted by Dorothy Bruck in Australia showing that current fire alarms are not effective for people with hearing loss. HLAA is collaborating with the University of Australia on the issue.

University of Australia scientists will conduct the research and the Fire Protection Research Foundation will put together an advisory council. HLAA will carry out a national media campaign in this country to inform the hard of hearing  and others about fire safety and the special danger that inadequate fire/smoke alarms presents to the hard of hearing. The campaign will cite the research findings and will target consumers with hearing loss and community leaders such as firefighters, aging agencies and hearing health professionals.

People who are profoundly deaf are typically very aware of their inability to respond to auditory cues such as the doorbell, telephone and alarms. However, many people whose hearing loss is less severe (the “hard of hearing” people) may not feel a strong need for special devices, especially if their hearing aids are effective in increasing their functional hearing of signals. In such cases the major problem with hearing auditory alerting devices may be when they take their hearing aids out, as people do when they go to bed.

The sound emitted by most fire or smoke alarms is at a level that is not heard (or not heard well) by a significant portion of the hard of hearing population.  According to a study entitled, "Waking Effectiveness of Alarms for Adults who are Hard of Hearing," the typical audible signal used by smoke alarms failed to wake up 43 percent of tested subjects with mild to moderately severe hearing loss despite the fact that all were able to hear the typical 3100 Hz tone when awake.

The findings of this study indicate that millions of people with hearing loss will not be wakened from deep sleep by audible alerts which use only one tone in the high frequencies rather than a range of frequencies beginning at approximately 500 Hz. Strobe lights woke up only 27 percent of the hard of hearing subjects. In contrast, a specific audible multiple frequency signal consisting of a 520 Hz square wave [1] - a much lower tone - successfully alerted 92 percent of the subjects at the benchmark level of 75 dBA and alerted 100 percent at 95 dBA.  75 dBA is somewhat louder than the typical vacuum cleaner while 95 dBA would be comparable to a very loud power lawn mower.