Which Hearing Devices and Vision Aids Help With Deafblindness, and How Are They Fitted?

The kitchen table is where Marisol first noticed the two losses colliding. Her sister was signing across it, as she had for thirty years, but the evening light had dimmed and the hands kept slipping out of the narrow window of vision that Usher syndrome had left her. Her hearing aids, worn since childhood, caught the rhythm of the conversation but not the words. Neither sense could cover for the other anymore.

That collision is what makes hearing devices for deafblindness a different conversation from an ordinary hearing-aid appointment. A device is no longer one convenience among several. It may be the main channel through which a person reads the room, crosses a street, or hears a grandchild.

This explainer walks through the options that clinicians actually use, what fitting involves when a patient cannot simply be shown a screen, and where the evidence is strong, thin, or honestly unknown.

Why hearing devices for deafblindness are chosen differently

Deafblindness is a combined loss of hearing and sight severe enough that one sense cannot compensate for the other. The NHS uses that definition deliberately: most people described as deafblind are neither totally deaf nor totally blind, but the two impairments together shrink daily life in ways neither would alone.

The causes shape the equipment. Usher syndrome, an inherited condition that pairs hearing loss with a progressive retinal disease, is the most common cause of combined loss in younger adults, according to the National Eye Institute. Congenital causes such as CHARGE syndrome or infection in pregnancy affect children from birth. The largest group, though, is older adults whose age-related hearing loss and macular disease arrive within a few years of each other.

Once vision is limited, a hearing device stops being a listening accessory and becomes a safety sense. Priorities shift. Environmental awareness, the ability to hear a car or a door, can matter as much as speech clarity. The device itself has to work without being seen: controls that can be felt, battery warnings delivered as a tone or vibration rather than a flashing light, and charging cradles that do not demand fine visual alignment.

The team widens too. An audiologist, a professional who measures hearing and fits devices, usually works alongside an ophthalmologist or optometrist, a low-vision specialist who prescribes magnification, and rehabilitation staff trained in deafblindness. What matters most, in my view, is that these people talk to each other before anything is ordered. A hearing aid set up for a sighted person who lip-reads, and a magnifier chosen without knowing the person signs, are two well-intentioned mistakes that a single joint appointment can prevent.

Is there a device that helps deaf people hear? Hearing aids, explained

The short answer is yes, and for most people with hearing loss the first device offered is a hearing aid. A hearing aid is a small amplifier with a microphone, processor and speaker that makes sound louder and clearer for someone whose inner ear still works partly. It relies on surviving sensory cells in the cochlea, the snail-shaped organ that converts vibration into nerve signals.

Modern digital aids do more than turn up the volume. They compress loud sounds so they stay comfortable, lift soft consonants that carry meaning, reduce steady background noise, and use directional microphones to favor speech from in front. Styles range from behind-the-ear cases to devices sitting entirely in the ear canal. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders notes that behind-the-ear models tend to offer the largest controls and the most power, which is one reason they are often suggested when vision is also limited.

Two features matter especially for deafblind users. A telecoil lets the aid pick up sound from induction loops installed in halls, counters and transport. Wireless streaming connects the aid to a phone or a remote microphone, and the accompanying apps often speak their settings aloud or work with a screen reader.

Fitting begins with an audiogram, a chart of the softest sounds heard at each pitch. The audiologist programs the aid to a prescription derived from that chart, then verifies it with real-ear measurement: a hair-thin microphone placed in the ear canal alongside the aid confirms the sound actually reaching the eardrum matches the target. Hearing aids have limits. They cannot restore clarity where the cochlea is severely damaged, and the NIDCD is candid that getting used to them takes time and follow-up adjustments.

How cochlear implants work, and what actually happens at the fitting

A cochlear implant does something a hearing aid cannot: it bypasses the damaged sensory cells altogether. Instead of making sound louder, it converts sound into patterns of electrical pulses delivered directly to the hearing nerve, which the brain gradually learns to interpret.

The system has two parts. Outside sits a sound processor, worn behind the ear or on the head, containing microphones and a transmitter coil that clings to the scalp with a magnet. Beneath the skin lies a receiver connected to a fine electrode array threaded into the cochlea. According to the NIDCD, the array stimulates different regions of the nerve for different pitches, mimicking, crudely, how the healthy cochlea is organized.

Surgery is performed under general anesthesia through an incision behind the ear. Mayo Clinic describes it as typically a same-day or overnight procedure. Nothing is switched on in the operating room. Activation waits until the incision has healed, usually a few weeks later, at which point the audiologist attaches the processor and begins mapping.

Mapping is the fitting proper. Each electrode is tested individually for the softest current a person can detect and the loudest that remains comfortable. Those two numbers per electrode form the map. Early sound is famously strange: people describe beeps, cartoon voices, or the sense that everyone is speaking through a tin can. Clarity develops as the brain adapts, and the map is revised repeatedly over the first months.

For a deafblind patient, mapping cannot rely on pointing at a loudness chart on a screen. Audiologists adapt with tactile scales, verbal or signed responses, and extra time. The processor’s controls, magnet strength and battery routine are taught by touch before the person leaves the room.

Who is usually offered a cochlear implant, and who is asked to wait

Candidacy rests on two findings, not one. The first is a severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss, meaning the problem lies in the inner ear or nerve rather than in the eardrum or middle-ear bones. The second, stressed by the NIDCD, is limited benefit from well-fitted hearing aids. Someone who still understands most speech with aids is generally not a candidate, however frustrating noisy rooms have become.

Assessment is multi-layered. Speech-recognition testing with and without aids, imaging of the cochlea and hearing nerve to confirm an electrode can be placed, a medical review of fitness for anesthesia, and counseling about realistic expectations all happen before a decision. Children born with profound loss are usually assessed early, because the NIDCD notes that access to sound during the first years supports spoken-language development. Adults with progressive loss, including many with Usher syndrome types 2 and 3, may become candidates gradually as aids stop keeping up.

Being deafblind is not itself a reason to withhold an implant. If anything, teams weigh the fact that hearing may be the person’s primary access sense once vision narrows. The NEI notes that this reasoning informs discussions for people with Usher syndrome.

Who is asked to wait? People whose aids still deliver meaningful benefit. Anyone with an active middle-ear infection until it clears. Those whose imaging shows anatomy that needs a different surgical plan, or whose general health needs stabilizing first. Occasionally the pause is about expectations rather than ears: a person hoping for restored natural hearing may be offered more counseling before committing.

Alternatives are always laid out in the same breath: continuing optimized hearing aids, bone-conduction options for certain loss types, and communication approaches that do not depend on sound at all. The decision belongs to the person and their treating team.

Hearing aids vs cochlear implants: bone conduction and the middle ground

The comparison people search for most is hearing aids vs cochlear implants, and the honest answer is that they solve different problems. An aid amplifies what a partly working cochlea can still detect. An implant substitutes for a cochlea that can no longer do the job. Choosing between them is a matter of measurement, not preference.

There is a third family that suits neither description. Bone-conduction devices vibrate the skull so that sound travels straight to the inner ear, skipping the outer and middle ear entirely. They are considered when the outer ear canal is absent or malformed, as happens in some children with CHARGE syndrome, when chronic ear infections make anything in the canal unwise, or when one ear is deaf and the other hears well. Some versions sit on a soft headband and need no surgery, which is how children are usually started. Others attach to a small implant placed in the bone behind the ear.

Middle-ear implants, which drive the tiny ear bones directly, exist but are used far less often and belong to a specialist conversation.

The options are not exclusive. Many people with an implant in one ear keep a hearing aid in the other, an arrangement audiologists call bimodal hearing. The aid contributes low-pitched cues and a sense of where sound comes from; the implant contributes clarity. For someone who cannot see who is speaking, locating sound has practical weight, so teams often think about both ears from the outset rather than treating the second ear as an afterthought.

Whatever the device, the principle for deafblind users is the same: it must be operable by feel, and its failure must announce itself in a way other than a blinking light.

What are two assistive devices for deaf people? The wider hearing kit

If asked to name two, most audiologists would say a remote microphone system and a vibrating alerting device, because together they cover the two situations a hearing aid handles worst: distance and sleep.

A remote microphone, often called an FM or DM system, is a small transmitter worn by the speaker that sends their voice by radio straight to the listener’s hearing aid or implant processor. The NIDCD groups these under assistive listening devices. They shine in classrooms, cars and restaurants, where distance and clatter defeat even good directional microphones. For a person who cannot watch a speaker’s face, they also remove the need to face the right direction.

Induction loops do a similar job for buildings. A wire around a room or a counter carries the sound signal as a magnetic field; the telecoil inside a hearing aid picks it up when switched to that setting. Infrared systems serve theaters and courtrooms in the same way.

Alerting devices translate sound into something else. Alarm clocks that shake the bed, doorbells that trigger a vibrating pager, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms with a strobe and a pillow shaker. Flashing lights are the usual deaf-community solution, but for deafblind users vibration is the channel that never fails, so equipment lists lean toward wearable or under-mattress vibration.

Personal amplifiers, small boxes with headphones, sometimes bridge the gap while someone waits for a fitting. Telephone relay services and captioning help many deaf people, but they assume a readable screen. When vision is also limited, captioning becomes useful only with large text, adjustable contrast or output to a braille display, which is where the hearing kit and the vision kit start to overlap.

Low vision aids for deafblind people: magnification, light and contrast

Low vision means sight that ordinary glasses, contact lenses or surgery cannot bring back to normal, a definition the National Eye Institute uses. The aids that help are prescribed after a low-vision assessment that measures more than the familiar eye chart: how much detail the eye resolves, how wide the field of view is, how well faint shades of gray are distinguished, and how much glare interferes.

The classic tools are optical. Handheld and stand magnifiers come in graded powers, prescribed like spectacle lenses rather than picked off a shelf, because too much magnification shrinks the working area and slows reading. Spectacle-mounted telescopes help with distance tasks. A typoscope, a black card with a slot, isolates one line of print and cuts glare.

Electronic aids have widened what is possible. A video magnifier, sometimes still called a CCTV, is a camera and screen that enlarges print to almost any size and inverts colors to white-on-black, which many people with macular or retinal disease find easier. Screen-magnification software and built-in phone accessibility settings do the same for digital text.

Light and contrast are aids in their own right. Task lamps aimed over the shoulder, high-contrast tape on stair edges, dark placemats under white plates. None of this is glamorous, and all of it is evidence-based occupational therapy.

Why does this belong in an article about hearing? Because a deafblind person who lip-reads or uses sign language is using vision to receive communication, and a hearing aid alone cannot carry that load. Positioning the speaker in good light, at the right distance, within the remaining visual field, is a vision aid that costs nothing and is routinely forgotten.

Vision aids for tunnel vision and night blindness in Usher syndrome

Usher syndrome pairs hearing loss with retinitis pigmentosa, a disease in which the retina’s light-sensing cells break down. The NEI describes the pattern: rods, which handle dim light and peripheral vision, fail first, producing night blindness and a field that narrows over years toward a central tunnel. Central detail vision often lasts longest.

This pattern turns ordinary low-vision advice on its head. Magnification, the mainstay for macular disease, can make tunnel vision worse, because enlarging an image pushes more of it outside the remaining field. People with retinitis pigmentosa frequently read small print well and struggle instead to find the beginning of the next line. Aids therefore focus on locating rather than enlarging: a finger or ruler as a line guide, reading software that scrolls text through the center of view, and training in systematic scanning.

Field-expanding optics such as reverse telescopes and prism spectacles exist, but the evidence for them is limited and mixed, and many people find the distortion outweighs the gain. A good low-vision clinic will offer a trial rather than a promise.

Night blindness is addressed with light. Bright, evenly distributed home lighting, a powerful handheld flashlight, and tinted filters that cut glare while preserving contrast in daylight. Orientation and mobility training with a long cane, taught by a certified specialist, gives safety in the dark that no optic can.

Sign language itself is adapted. Signers learn to keep their hands within the small central window, at a set distance, against a plain dark top, and to slow down. When the window closes further, communication moves to the hands: tactile signing, where the receiver rests their hands over the signer’s. Devices matter here, but so does teaching the people around the patient.

Tactile technology: when neither hearing nor vision is enough

For some people, and for many people some of the time, touch is the most reliable sense left. Tactile technology is not a last resort; it is often the layer that makes hearing and vision devices usable at all.

The core tool is the refreshable braille display, a slim device on which small pins rise and fall to form braille characters that change as the user moves through text. Connected to a phone or computer running a screen reader, it turns emails, captions, navigation apps and the setup menus of a hearing aid into something read under the fingertips. Displays range from a dozen cells for pocket use to forty or more for desk work. Some pair with a keyboard so a deafblind person can type a message that a sighted companion reads on a screen, and receive the reply in braille: a portable face-to-face conversation without a shared language.

Wearables add haptics, meaning vibration patterns felt on the wrist or body. Distinct pulses can signal a doorbell, a phone call, a smoke alarm, or a navigation turn. Because these are felt rather than heard or seen, they work when a hearing aid battery has died or a room has gone dark.

Human systems count as technology too. Tactile sign language, hand-under-hand guidance, and Protactile, a communication approach developed within the DeafBlind community that carries facial expression and environmental information through touch on the back and arm, are taught by specialists, not bought.

Fitting a braille display means assessing braille literacy, finger sensitivity, which can be reduced by diabetes or age, and dexterity. Training typically runs across many sessions, and the NHS notes that rehabilitation and specialist support are central to living well with deafblindness rather than optional extras.

Hearing devices and vision aids for deafblindness at a glance

The table below is a map, not a menu. Suitability is decided by measurement and by the person’s goals, and several rows are often combined.

Device	What it does	Usually suited to	Fitting involves
Hearing aid	Amplifies and shapes sound for a partly working inner ear	Mild to severe sensorineural loss with usable residual hearing	Audiogram, prescription programming, real-ear verification, tactile training
Cochlear implant	Electrically stimulates the hearing nerve, bypassing damaged cells	Severe-to-profound loss with limited hearing-aid benefit	Candidacy tests, imaging, surgery, activation after healing, repeated mapping
Bone-conduction device	Sends vibration through bone to the inner ear	Conductive or mixed loss, absent ear canal, single-sided deafness	Softband trial; optional implanted anchor later
Remote microphone or loop	Delivers a speaker’s voice directly to the aid or processor	Anyone struggling with distance or noise	Pairing with existing device, telecoil check
Vibrating alerting devices	Convert alarms and doorbells to vibration	All deafblind households	Home assessment, placement, testing routine
Optical or video magnifier	Enlarges and boosts contrast of print and objects	Central vision loss with intact field	Low-vision assessment, power prescription, task practice
Refreshable braille display	Turns digital text into touch-readable braille	Braille readers, or those willing to learn	Literacy and dexterity assessment, extended training

Two patterns stand out. First, the hearing rows all end with some form of tactile training, because a device that cannot be operated by touch will end up in a drawer. Second, magnification appears once, and with a caveat, because the most common cause of deafblindness in younger adults produces exactly the kind of field loss that magnification can worsen. A thoughtful team reads the table from the person’s diagnosis outward, not from the newest gadget inward.

The cochlear implant fitting process and hearing-aid fitting, step by step

People often imagine fitting as a single afternoon. For a deafblind patient it is a sequence, and knowing the sequence lowers anxiety at each stage.

It starts with referral and history: how the hearing and vision losses developed, what communication the person uses now, what they want back. A full audiogram follows, usually with speech testing in quiet and noise. Where vision is also limited, a good service arranges the low-vision assessment around the same time, so that hearing decisions are made knowing whether the person will rely on lip-reading, sign, or neither.

For hearing aids, the audiologist then selects a style and features with dexterity and vision in mind, programs it to prescription, verifies output with real-ear measurement, and teaches insertion, cleaning and charging by touch. Written instructions are offered in large print, braille or audio. A follow-up is booked within weeks for fine-tuning, and the NIDCD advises asking about a trial period before committing.

For the cochlear implant fitting process, candidacy assessment adds imaging, a surgical consultation and counseling, then surgery. Activation follows once the incision has healed, described by Mayo Clinic as typically a few weeks later. Initial mapping sets electrode levels conservatively; comfort levels rise across several visits in the first months as the brain adapts, and auditory training, structured listening practice, is offered alongside.

Throughout, adaptations are practical rather than exotic. Longer appointments. Explaining aloud or in tactile sign what is about to happen before it happens. Demonstrating a control by guiding the person’s finger to it rather than pointing. Confirming the interpreter or intervener, a specially trained support worker, is booked for every visit.

Ask whether the hearing and vision teams share notes. When they do, the fitting is faster and the device is more likely to be worn.

What the following days and weeks usually look like

With new hearing aids, the first week is loud. Refrigerators hum, footsteps clatter, one’s own voice sounds strange. This is the brain rediscovering sounds it had filtered out, and the NIDCD notes that adjustment takes time and often several follow-up appointments. Audiologists usually suggest starting in quieter settings and building up wearing time over days, then returning for fine-tuning once the initial novelty settles. Trial periods, where offered, exist precisely so that this phase can be lived through before a final decision.

After cochlear implant surgery, the early days are about healing. Mayo Clinic lists soreness at the incision, temporary dizziness, altered taste on one side of the tongue and a numb patch of scalp as common short-term effects. The ear is silent until activation. When the processor is first switched on, sound is typically odd rather than clear, and the NIDCD is explicit that learning to interpret it takes time, with benefit varying from person to person. Mapping visits cluster in the first few months, then thin out. Progress is measured in speech-recognition scores, and no clinician can promise where an individual will land.

Vision aids have their own settling period. Reading with a strong magnifier is tiring at first, and people sometimes abandon a device that would have served them well after a few weeks of practice. Rehabilitation staff schedule follow-up to adjust working distance, lighting and posture.

What the calendar cannot show is the emotional shape of these weeks. Many people describe grief mixed with relief, particularly when a device makes plain how much had been lost. Peer support through deafblind organizations is not a soft add-on; the NHS lists specialist support and rehabilitation among the core elements of care, and clinicians should offer a referral rather than wait to be asked.

What people often get wrong about hearing devices for deafblindness

Some misconceptions are harmless. Others delay help by years.

The first is that deafblind means completely deaf and completely blind. The NHS definition is combined loss that prevents one sense compensating for the other. Most people in this group have usable residual hearing or sight, and devices are designed around what remains.

The second is that a cochlear implant restores normal hearing. It does not. The NIDCD describes it as providing a useful representation of sound that the brain must learn to interpret, and results vary. People who expect a switch back to their twenties are set up for disappointment; people who expect a new sense to be learned tend to do the work that learning requires.

Third: more magnification is always better. For retinitis pigmentosa and other field losses, it can make reading harder by pushing text out of view. Prescription matters as much as it does for eyeglasses.

Fourth: devices replace sign language, interpreters or tactile communication. They add channels; they rarely make the others redundant, and on the day a battery fails, the human channels are what remain.

Fifth, the most searched question: how much does a hearing machine cost? This article does not quote prices, because they vary enormously by country, device type, insurance and public funding, and any figure would be wrong for most readers. What is universally true is that several countries run equipment or distribution programs for people with combined sensory loss, and that audiologists and deafblind services agencies know how to access them. Ask before assuming something is out of reach.

Last: it is too late for adults. Candidacy is based on hearing measurements and health, not age, and many implant recipients are older adults.

Questions to ask your care team

Good questions do two things: they surface information the team may not volunteer, and they signal what matters to you so the fitting is built around it. Bring them written down, or ask that they be recorded and sent back in your preferred format.

• Have my hearing and vision assessments been shared between the audiology and eye teams, and can a joint appointment be arranged?
• Based on my hearing test, am I gaining meaningful benefit from hearing aids, or is it time to be assessed for a cochlear implant?
• Which controls on this device can I operate entirely by touch, and how will it tell me the battery is low without a light?
• Is there a trial period, and what does it cover?
• How will you take my responses during programming if I cannot see the screen or a chart?
• What does the first month after fitting or activation usually look like for someone with my type of loss, and how many follow-ups should I expect?
• Given my visual field, is magnification likely to help or hinder, and what alternatives exist?
• Can an interpreter or intervener be booked for every appointment, including the surgeon’s?
• What happens if the device stops working on a weekend?
• Are there equipment programs or rehabilitation services for people with combined loss that I should be referred to?
• What are the specific risks of the option you are recommending, and what would you suggest if I chose not to proceed?

One more, often skipped: who is my single point of contact? Deafblind care crosses departments, and a named coordinator, whether a rehabilitation officer, a specialist nurse or an audiologist, prevents the person from becoming the only link between their own clinicians. If no one is named, ask for someone to be.

When to call your doctor

Most problems with hearing and vision devices are nuisances: a whistle, a loose fit, a magnifier that fogs. A few are urgent, and reduced sight or hearing can make them harder to notice, so lower the threshold for calling.

After cochlear implant surgery, contact the surgical team the same day for spreading redness, swelling or discharge at the incision, a fever, pain that is worsening rather than easing, new weakness or drooping on that side of the face, or severe spinning dizziness. Seek emergency care for a severe headache with a stiff neck, high fever, or unusual drowsiness: the NIDCD notes a small risk of meningitis after implantation and recommends that recipients keep vaccinations up to date, a matter to confirm with the treating team.

With hearing aids, call if the ear becomes painful, discharges fluid or bleeds, or if the aid seems to have stopped helping. A sudden drop in hearing in either ear, over hours to a couple of days, is treated as urgent in its own right, with or without a device, because early assessment matters.

For vision, arrange same-day care for a sudden loss or change in sight, a shower of new floaters or flashes, a curtain or shadow across part of the view, or a painful red eye. People with retinal disease should not assume a new symptom is simply progression.

Any device that delivers an unexpected shock, becomes hot, or causes a rash where it touches skin should be removed and reported. The team may also want to know about falls, new confusion or a sudden change in balance, all of which can point to something beyond the ears or eyes. When in doubt, the call is always appropriate; the decision about what comes next sits with the clinicians who know your case.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a device that helps deaf people hear?

Yes. Hearing aids amplify sound for people whose inner ear still works partly, and cochlear implants deliver electrical signals directly to the hearing nerve when the inner ear is severely damaged. Bone-conduction devices help when the outer or middle ear is the problem. Which one suits a person is decided by hearing tests, imaging where needed, and discussion with an audiologist and, for implants, a surgeon.

What are two assistive devices for deaf people?

A remote microphone system and a vibrating alerting device are two commonly recommended examples. The remote microphone sends a speaker’s voice straight to a hearing aid or implant processor, defeating distance and noise. Vibrating alerts turn alarms, doorbells and phone calls into something felt rather than heard. For deafblind users, vibration is preferred over flashing lights because it works without sight.

How much does a hearing machine for deaf people cost?

This article does not quote prices, because costs vary widely by country, device type, insurance and public funding, and any single figure would mislead most readers. Many countries offer equipment or distribution programs for people with combined hearing and vision loss. An audiologist or a deafblind services agency can explain what funding or trial arrangements apply where you live.

What are some devices that can help people who are deaf and have low vision?

Hearing aids or a cochlear implant for sound, a remote microphone for distance, vibrating alerting devices for safety, prescribed optical or video magnifiers and task lighting for sight, and a refreshable braille display for text. Most deafblind people use a combination, chosen after coordinated hearing and low-vision assessments and supported by training in tactile operation.

Hearing aids vs cochlear implants: how do clinicians decide?

By measurement. Hearing aids are tried first, and an implant is considered when hearing loss is severe to profound and well-fitted aids no longer give meaningful speech understanding, according to the NIDCD. Imaging, medical fitness and expectations are also assessed. Many people end up with both, an implant in one ear and an aid in the other, which can help with locating sound.

How long does the cochlear implant fitting process take?

It unfolds over months rather than a day. Candidacy assessment comes first, then surgery, then a healing period before activation, which Mayo Clinic describes as typically a few weeks after the operation. Mapping visits to adjust electrode levels cluster in the first few months and become less frequent as hearing stabilizes. Timelines vary, and the team sets the schedule for each person.

Which low vision aids for deafblind people actually help?

It depends on the pattern of sight loss. Central vision loss often responds to prescribed magnifiers, video magnifiers and contrast changes. Field loss, as in the retinitis pigmentosa of Usher syndrome, is helped more by line guides, lighting, scanning training and a long cane, because magnification can shrink what is visible. A low-vision assessment identifies which pattern applies.

Can someone with Usher syndrome get a cochlear implant?

Often, yes. Usher syndrome is not a barrier, and teams frequently weigh the fact that hearing may become the primary access sense as vision narrows, a consideration noted by the National Eye Institute. Candidacy still rests on hearing measurements showing limited benefit from hearing aids, plus imaging and medical review. The decision is made with the treating team.

Why do hearing aids struggle in noisy places?

Because amplification raises background sound along with speech, and a damaged inner ear separates the two poorly. Directional microphones and noise reduction help but cannot eliminate the problem. Remote microphones, which capture the speaker’s voice close to the mouth, and induction loops with a telecoil are the standard solutions, and the NIDCD lists them among assistive listening devices.

Can deafblind people use smartphones with their hearing devices?

Many do. Modern hearing aids and implant processors can stream from phones, and built-in accessibility features such as screen readers, magnification and vibration alerts make the phone itself usable. Pairing a refreshable braille display allows text, captions and app settings to be read by touch. Set-up is usually taught during rehabilitation so the person can manage it independently.

References

• Cochlear Implants: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH)
• Hearing Aids: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH)
• Assistive Devices for People with Hearing, Voice, Speech, or Language Disorders: NIDCD (NIH)
• Deafblindness: NHS

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.