Better control with today’s digital hearing aids
Years ago, I worked in a school where our boss—the principal—had suffered from hearing loss. Elaine wore one of the newer models of hearing aids available at the time, so it was fairly discreet, but we teachers were aware of it. I’m ashamed to admit that we took advantage of that knowledge, too. During staff meetings, we would jockey for position on her weak side, knowing we could get away with chatting to colleagues as long as Elaine wasn’t looking. Yes, I admit it: we were as disrespectful of her sometimes as our students were of us. It was probably a good thing that the principal’s use of a hearing aid was not common knowledge, or the students, too, might have learned to take advantage of it, especially if they had ever witnessed the teachers doing so.
With today’s technology, we rowdy teachers would be out of luck. Digital hearing aids currently on the market feature significant advances in signal processing. What that means is that Elaine could enjoy increased audibility of the sounds she wants to hear without experiencing discomfort from a high intensity of unwanted sounds. Low-level environmental sounds can be reduced in intensity, while sounds of interest—like chatty teachers’ voices—come through loud and clear. In fact, today’s hearing aids can differentiate between the sound of voices and background noise, helping improve speech recognition.
Additionally, Elaine would have options in hearing aid design that would make it difficult, if not impossible, for those she worked with to even realize she was wearing a hearing aid. One of the more popular designs is the behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aid, which technology has rendered so small as to be easily hidden by a hairstyle. Designs become more discreet from there, with in the ear (ITE), in the canal (ITC) and completely in the canal (CIC) options. Hearing aids that fit completely in the canal are the smallest of all, virtually invisible to anyone who is not staring right at your ear.
So my fond memories of slightly rebellious staff meetings would probably not be possible today. If I were in a similar situation, I’d have to discover new ways to rebel. Since students constantly discover creative new ways to thwart authority, surely we teachers would manage to do so.