HLAA Exhibits #7 2008 Hearing Loss Association of America Conference
- Reno, NV
By Cheryl Heppner, 6/24/08
Sound Clarity
My annual visit with the Khal
brothers of Sound Clarity is always a pleasure. The company,
located in Iowa City, Iowa, has hearing assistive devices, alerting
devices, hearing aid batteries and supplies, amplified
phones, TTYs, vibrating alarm clocks, personal amplfiers,
and cell phone accessories including Bluetooth devices.
This year, the Khals found the
HLAA crowd had a strong interest in cell phone products
such as Bluetooth. Apparently
2008 is also the year of the Swedish invasion, as many
of the hot new products at this convention came from there. One
that is seeking to edge out older personal amplification
devices like the PockeTalker is the Bellman Audio Maxi
from Bellman & Symfon. It is a device that looks
like a more elegant remote control. Two AA batteries
give up to 150 hours of use. The design is especially
good for those with both hearing and vision loss, with
its simple, large, and clear controls to turn on or
off, or adjust volume or tone. Tactile markings also make
the controls easy to locate just by feel. The Bellman
Audi Maxi comes with earphones, a lanyard, and a cable
kit for TV listening. There's telecoil pickup for
inductive loops. A lightweight neckloop can also be
purchased.
The Comfort Duett, also from Sweden, is advertised
as "a sleek personal listening system" and it truly
is small and lightweight. It's rechargeable and can
be clipped to your clothing. It looks like a trendy MP3
player, and comes with both headphones and earphones as
well as a communicator unit, base/charger unit, power cord
and transformer, headphone rest and rechargeable battery. There's
a built-in telecoil to enable listening to an audioloop,
or you can wear a neckloop and use the Comfort Duet to
listen with your hearing aid's telecoil. It can be
equipped to amplify television, telephone, radio, stereo,
and other sound sources.
Also hot this year is the MaxIT
Bluetooth neckloop to use with Bluetooth cell phones.
You wear it around your neck like a necklace with a pendant
and it sends the cell phone audio right to your telecoil-equipped
hearing aids. If you have two hearing aids, you can turn on the
t-coil in both and hear your phone calls in stereo. The
device has a built-in hands' free microphone. It's
imported from Hong Kong and its three buttons include a
volume control. The MaxIT runs on a single AAA battery that
gives talk time of up to 15 hours, standby time of
up to 500 hours. The realistic range is about
20 feet.
Sorenson IP Relay is one of the
Internet Protocol relay services which allow people with
hearing loss to place free text-based relay calls from
a personal computer or mobile device to any telephone
user. The company
also offers Voice Carry Over (VCO) with Sorenson IP Relay. VCO
enables you to talk directly to the person you are calling
while you read what they are saying. Here's how it
works: You provide the phone number of the person you want
to call. A Sorenson communication assistant will
answer the call and type the conversation to you,
which you read on your PC or wireless device. If
you are using Sorenson's CaptionCall VCO service, the audio
from the call will also be sent to the number of the phone
you have provided when placing the call.
If you use a BlackBerry device,
you can download software from the SIP Relay website,
or you can download the software to your computer and
install it in your BlackBerry. SIP
Relay can also be used on your PC or any compatible mobile
device that has AIM.
One of my favorite things to do
at HLAA conventions is to talk with Sorenson's Rob Puzey
about the other features I'd like to have in relay services. I want it all! Having
tried so many flavors of relay - TTY to voice, video relay
service, IP relay, CapTel and Web CapTel, I find that all
of them have elements I like. But not one really gives
me the true "functional equivalency" intended in Title
IV of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which mandated
telecommunication relay services. Rob always listens
patiently to my wish list, smiles and says "we're working
on it!"
One of the evening events at the
conference was a movie night sponsored by Sorenson, in
partnership with Cinemark and Insight Cinema. There were free tickets to a
captioned showing of "Baby Mama" at the Century Riverside
12 on Friday evening. Attendees not only got free
admission but also free popcorn and a soft drink.
Graduates Cara Miller with hearing
dog Maya and Don Detrick with hearing dog Cali were the
primary exhibitors for Canine Companions for Independence (CCI). CCI is
a nonprofit organizatin founded in 1975. Hearing
dogs are one of four types of assistance dogs they train. The
others are service dogs, skilled companions, and facility
dogs. The dogs are specially bred Labrador and Golden
Retrievers who are raised by puppy raisers and then sent
to a training facility. At the training facility,
they learn to master over 40 specialized commands before
Team Training. The two-week Team Training is where
the human partners learn handling and care for their
hearing dog.
Once the team returns home, the
graduates customize the dog's alerting pattern to their
own needs. Dogs
do such things as alerting to smoke alarms, incoming
email messages, timers on microwaves or dryers, and dropped
keys. CCI hearing dogs and follow up services are
free of charge thanks to many, many generous donors.
To receive a CCI hearing dog,
you must be 18 years of age, fill out an application
packet, and find a friend or family member to be a training
assistant. The application process has several steps.
