Making Telephone Use Easier for Hearing Aid Users

Why Standard Phones Are Hard Work With Hearing Aids

A hearing aid is tuned for the room around you, not for a small plastic earpiece pressed against your ear. When you hold a handset to your head, the sound has to travel from the phone's receiver into the hearing aid's microphone, and a good deal of clarity is lost on the way. High frequencies — the ones that carry consonants and make speech intelligible — are the first to suffer, so callers can sound muffled or as though they are mumbling.

There is also the whistling problem. Push a handset too close and the amplified sound leaks back into the hearing aid, creating the feedback squeal that makes conversations embarrassing and exhausting. Add in the fact that many people use the phone in a noisy kitchen or hallway, and it is no wonder that hearing aid users often avoid calls altogether. The good news is that a few simple changes, some of them free, can transform the experience.

Start With Your Hearing Aid's Own Settings

Before you spend a penny on new equipment, make sure your hearing aids are set up to help. Most modern aids — including those issued by the NHS — include a telecoil programme, usually labelled T, MT or with a loop symbol. This setting switches off the hearing aid's microphone and picks up the magnetic field generated by a telephone handset instead, delivering the caller's voice directly to your ear without background noise.

If your aids do not have a telecoil programme, ask your audiologist to add one. It is often a quick adjustment, and in many areas it can be done at a routine review or even remotely. It is also worth asking about:

• A modest increase in gain for telephone use, so you have more headroom on quiet calls.
• Feedback management settings that reduce whistling when a handset comes close.
• Whether your aids support Bluetooth streaming, which lets a compatible mobile phone send calls straight to your aids like wireless headphones.

Write down what you want before the appointment. Audiologists can only fine-tune what they know about, and a five-minute conversation about phone difficulties is time well spent.

Choosing a Handset That Works With Your Aids

If you use a landline, the handset matters more than the base unit. Look for phones described as hearing aid compatible, and check the specification for adjustable receive volume and tone. A useful handset will offer:

• Extra receive gain — often up to 30 decibels or more above a standard phone.
• A tone or clarity control that boosts high frequencies rather than simply making everything louder.
• A large, well-spaced keypad and a display you can actually read.
• A decent speakerphone, which lets you listen with both ears and your aids at once.

Amplified corded phones tend to produce a stronger magnetic field than cordless ones, which makes them particularly good with a telecoil setting. Cordless and mobile handsets vary enormously, so buy from a retailer with a clear returns policy and test the phone at home with your own aids before committing.

Getting the Most From the Loop Setting

Using the T programme well is a skill worth practising. Switch the aid to T, then move the earpiece slowly around the top of your ear until the caller's voice comes through clearly. The telecoil sits in a different place in every model, so a little patience pays off. Keep the handset upright rather than tilted, and let the earpiece rest lightly against your ear rather than pressing hard.

Remember that on the T setting you will not hear your own voice properly, and you may not hear the doorbell, a smoke alarm or someone speaking beside you. Many people switch back to the normal programme to speak and flick to T to listen, or use the MT setting as a compromise. Practise with a friend until it feels natural.

Practical Habits for Clearer Conversations

Small adjustments make a big difference. Take calls somewhere quiet, close the door and turn off the television. Tell people to speak normally — shouting distorts speech and makes lip-reading harder. If a call is important, ask the caller to slow down and repeat rather than guess at what you missed.

For longer or more difficult calls, the national relay services can help: a relay assistant types what the other person says so you can read it, or passes your typed words back as speech. Video relay is available for British Sign Language users. These services are free to use and can be set up on a smartphone or landline.

Mobile Phones, Streaming and Support

Smartphones have quietly become the best telephones for many hearing aid users. If your aids support direct streaming, calls arrive in both ears at a volume you control, with no whistling and no awkward handset positioning. Even without streaming, most phones offer hands-free calling, adjustable call volume and compatibility with neckloops or streamers that work alongside a telecoil.

Finally, do not struggle alone. Your audiologist, your local sensory impairment service and hearing aid user groups can all advise on handsets, loops and settings. Ask about home visits if getting out is difficult, and take a friend or family member along to appointments if it helps you remember the advice. A clearer phone call is usually only one small adjustment away.