I have a question for people in the hearing aid industry.
Why so few choices in the types of hearing aids? It seems to be basically just two types, the behind the ear or in the ear. That seems pretty limited as far as ergonomics go.
I’m arthritic in my hands to the point where handling small hearing aids is quite difficult and the possibility of dropping them is ever present. In other words, I’d like to see some larger types of hearing aids that are ergonomically easier to handle for the disabled. For instance, the industry for decades has been marketing themselves as hearing aids that no one will know you’re wearing. In the 21st century with headsets, ear pods and Bluetooth in people’s ears, the concept of hiding a device is only relevant to a small portion of the market. Furthermore, I don’t care to hide the fact that my hearing is damaged. I would like to have a hearing aid device that just pins onto my shirt and works not much different than the communicators on Star Trek and links up through Bluetooth to pods in my ear. So maybe I’m ignorant and there’s some sort of technological limit or a law on audio devices that will not allow this to happen.
Also, I see no real reason why hearing aids need to be so expensive. There’s no real new technology since going digital and and I don't believe there's a whole lot of gold or platinum in them and all the components are pretty standard. As far as I can tell the reason why they’re so expensive is because the market allows it. People feel powerless over exercising their consumer choice in the area of hearing aids and we'll pay an exorbitant amount of money for a device that really doesn't cost that much to make. And as far as setting up the device that should be something I can do on myself.
Something needs to change in the industry.
Why so few choices in the types of hearing aids? It seems to be basically just two types, the behind the ear or in the ear. That seems pretty limited as far as ergonomics go.
I’m arthritic in my hands to the point where handling small hearing aids is quite difficult and the possibility of dropping them is ever present. In other words, I’d like to see some larger types of hearing aids that are ergonomically easier to handle for the disabled. For instance, the industry for decades has been marketing themselves as hearing aids that no one will know you’re wearing. In the 21st century with headsets, ear pods and Bluetooth in people’s ears, the concept of hiding a device is only relevant to a small portion of the market. Furthermore, I don’t care to hide the fact that my hearing is damaged. I would like to have a hearing aid device that just pins onto my shirt and works not much different than the communicators on Star Trek and links up through Bluetooth to pods in my ear. So maybe I’m ignorant and there’s some sort of technological limit or a law on audio devices that will not allow this to happen.
Also, I see no real reason why hearing aids need to be so expensive. There’s no real new technology since going digital and and I don't believe there's a whole lot of gold or platinum in them and all the components are pretty standard. As far as I can tell the reason why they’re so expensive is because the market allows it. People feel powerless over exercising their consumer choice in the area of hearing aids and we'll pay an exorbitant amount of money for a device that really doesn't cost that much to make. And as far as setting up the device that should be something I can do on myself.
Something needs to change in the industry.
