Something that is extremely new and not very well known is the hearing aid technology that Apple has created. Apple, arguably the largest tech company in the world, has been working on making their products more accessible for everyone, including the disabled. They have specific features for the visually impaired, hearing impaired, those with physical and motor impairments, and those with learning and literacy impairments. Apple has worked with top manufacturers to create hearing aids that are designed specifically for apple products. The goal is to make using your phone or other apple device as easy as possible, no matter who you are. The hearing aids have Bluetooth capability, as do many new hearing aids now, and can be controlled directly from your iPhone, iPad, or apple watch. This makes adjusting hearing aids a lot easier as one hearing aid setting does not fit all noise levels and backgrounds.

There are also many new apps that you can buy in the app store that were created for those with hearing loss. Some new apps allow a person to use the phone microphone that you speak into while talking on the phone as a microphone that feeds the sounds directly into the users hearing aids. This is similar to an FM system(which I wrote about in a previous post) except the main difference is that this app makes group conversations even easier. There is no speaker set that needs to be passed from person to person in order for the hearing impaired person to follow conversation. This app lets users put their phone down in the middle of the table and the microphone picks up the conversation and feeds it directly to the ears of the person with hearing loss. There are other apps that also translate sound into words and act as a captioning device for those with hearing problems. Today’s technology is making the world far more accessible to those with disabilities and it is really opening up new doors and creating connections between people that were not there or would not have occurred before.