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Aids for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
A wide range of aids are available to help deaf and hard-of-hearing people in all situations they may encounter on a day-to-day basis.
Depending on the person’s needs, there’s not just one solution, but many!
1,5 billions
The number of hearing-impaired people in the world
1 of 4
The number of French people suffering from hearing loss
37%
The percentage of deaf people who wear hearing aids
Hearing aids to compensate for deafness
Hearing aids
Hearing aids are a common solution for people with hearing loss.
Thanks to technological advances, modern hearing aids offer improved sound quality and better adaptation to noisy environments, while being increasingly discreet.
They can be adjusted to individual needs by a hearing care professional, and are often equipped with features such as Bluetooth connectivity to facilitate communication with other devices, such as telephones and televisions.
Cochlear implants
For the profoundly deaf, cochlear implants can be used when a conventional hearing aid is no longer sufficient.
This heavier type of hearing aid requires surgery and a period of adjustment and re-education to the sounds it transmits.
It’s a device made up of two parts: an external part, the processor, shaped like a hearing aid, connected to an internal part, the electrode, by a magnetic antenna.
The purpose of the implant is to stimulate the nerve and thus, in a way, replace the hair cells in the cochlea.
Additional technical and technological aids
Visual systems
Many visual systems enable deaf and hard-of-hearing people to benefit from additional assistance.
For example, there are fire alarms, intercoms and telephones equipped with flashing lights that can be activated either to supplement the sound emitted, or to replace it.
On smartphones, this is often a simple option to activate in the settings!
Vibrating systems
Most often, these are vibrating bracelets or pillows designed for waking up in the morning.
The same principle applies to smartphones: you can activate the vibrator to complement the luminous flash when you have a call or receive a text message!
Live text transcription systems
Most videos these days are subtitled, but if this isn’t the case, there’s often an automatic live subtitling system.
In daily life, you can install an application on your smartphone to transcribe a live conversation: it’s like subtitles, but for everyday life!
Although increasingly effective, these systems sometimes have a few shortcomings and can be stuck on certain words or accents.
Wireless systems
In addition to hearing aids and cochlear implants, there are a number of accessories that enable you to connect your hearing aids to wireless systems to improve understanding in many situations.
These include table-top microphones or microphones to be worn around the speaker’s neck, as well as boxes to be connected to the television or telephone… for even clearer sound!
Hearing dogs
Although aids are becoming more and more common, and technological advances are making them more and more effective, there are unfortunately still many situations in which a deaf person encounters difficulties. For example, the siren of the fire department or a car coming from behind are sounds that hearing aids sometimes have difficulty picking up.
And when the sounds are perceptible, their direction is difficult for the person to recognize, making the sound information almost useless…
It’s in these situations that our dogs come in to ensure the safety of their owners, warning them and shifting them if necessary.
They are also very useful for a wide range of sounds, because after their training, they are able to respond to the needs of a deaf person in the best possible way!
- an invisible disability
- a daily inconvenience
All operating, acquisition and training costs for the dogs are entirely covered by the Association les Chiens du Silence: the provision of an assistance dog is free of charge for the recipient.
