Have you tried the iPhone accessibility features for the hearing impaired? Well in this video,
I’m talking about the 5 best features for the hard of hearing and Deaf community.
Coming up!
Hi, I'm Dr. Derek - audiologist, audio engineer, and musician with Pro Fit Hearing.com bringing
you the best insight in today's latest hearing aids, headphones, and audio technology to
improve your life. If you have concerns about your hearing, always consult with your
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Today, I’m talking about the 5 Best iPhone accessibility features for the hearing impaired.
Now, these options are available on the devices I tested which have iOS 13 and
14. But if you don’t see these features on your device, you might need to upgrade your
software. Make sure you watch until the end of the video for my bonus tip on how
to use your iPhone to protect your hearing.
Ok let’s take a look at the features.
First, go to Settings, then Accessibility.
There are four main categories. Vision, Physical and Motor, Hearing, and General.
You can check out all the categories to see if there's a feature that you’d like to
try out, but for today I’ll be focusing on Hearing.
number 1, Hearing Devices
Under Hearing Devices, you have the option to sync any iPhone compatible hearing aids
to the iPhone. If you have an iPhone compatible hearing aid, it should be listed under
MFI hearing devices. MFI stands for Made for iPhone. You also have the Hearing Aid Compatibility
option which can improve the audio quality for hearing aids that use a telecoil for phone
calls.
Made for iPhone hearing aids connect directly to the iPhone. They have access to remote
control apps, GPS functionality, and battery life indicators. You can make simple sound
adjustments, automatically activate saved settings depending on your location, and see
what percentage of battery life you have left. Any sounds that you hear on the iPhone can
be transmitted directly to the hearing aids. This could be music, videos, or sounds
from your app. Hearing aids that do not connect directly to the iPhone can still stream
audio from the phone, but they require an extra device called an audio streamer
that you wear around your
neck or clip to your shirt.
Made for iPhone hearing aids also support the Live Listen feature. This turns your iPhone
into a wireless microphone. Anything that the iPhone mic picks up is transmitted back to
the hearing aid. You can use this device whenever you want to hear someone better in a restaurant, hear
a speaker or presenter, or even hear the TV better. Just turn on Live Listen and place
your iPhone next to whatever you want to hear. A quick way to access this feature is to enable
the accessibility shortcut under Accessibility, General, Accessibility Shortcut. You
can add a control for Live Listen here.
Ask your audiologist about what iPhone compatible hearing aids they offer and whether they’re
an appropriate match for your needs. For a specific detailed guide on how to pair your hearing aids
with iPhone, check out the link in the description below.
number 2, Sound Recognition
This is new to iOS 14. If enabled, your iPhone
will listen to your environment to detect certain types of sounds that you select and
then notify you when the iPhone hears them. These sounds can include Alarms, Animals,
Household sounds, and People. It also states that Sound Recognition should not be relied upon in
circumstances where you may be harmed or injured, in high-risk or emergency situations, or for navigation.
number 3, RTT & TTY
RTT & TTY allows for text transmission over the phone. RTT stands for real time text.
TTY stands for teletype which is not sent in real-time. With RTT, the text is sent immediately
as it’s being typed and allows for a more real-time, conversational feel. RTT includes
the audio as well. You can also use Hardware TTY option if that applies to you.
But make sure to check with your cell phone carrier to make sure the feature is supported.
number 4, Audio/Visual
Something new to iOS 14 is Headphone Accommodations.
In order to use this feature, you must have
supported Apple or Beats headphones. The AirPods Pro work with this feature.
One of the most interesting things about Headphone Accommodations is the ability
to adjust sound to your degree of hearing loss. You can select a customized audio setting for
a fine tuned experience. You can even calibrate your AirPods Pro to your
audiogram. Or you just adjust manually the sound to suit your needs. There's the
option to adjust sound quality for Balanced Tone, Vocal Range, or Brightness. This changes
the soft sounds and allows you to emphasize certain frequency bands for better sound quality.
All the settings will be applied to your phone calls and/or media on your device.
Watch out for my AirPods Pro review coming soon. I’ll leave a link for that in the
suggested videos above as soon as it’s available.
If you go back to Audio/Visual, you can see additional features like mono audio, noise
cancellation for the phone, and audio balance. The balance feature can be especially useful
if you have a unilateral or asymmetrical hearing loss. If you have more hearing loss in the
left ear for example, you can adjust the balance toward the left so that the volume goes more
to the left side than the right. You can then increase the overall volume to see if your ears
sound balanced.
You can also use the Visual alerts option to get your attention as well.
number 5, Subtitles and Captioning
Subtitles and Captioning is also available if you’d like to use it. The size and
style of the text can be adjusted so that the videos that you like to watch have clear text.
These settings can be applied whenever
the subtitles and captioning is available.
OK, so now for my bonus tip. Did you know that the iPhone tracks how loud your headphone volume
is? It’s in the Health app on your home screen. Open the Health app, and click on
Hearing. You’ll see headphone audio levels. It will indicate your sound exposure levels
measured in decibels. This measurement is more accurate when you use Apple
or Beats headphones.
Your sound exposure levels can then be displayed by hour, day, week, month, or year.
The health app also can store your audiogram and noise exposure data from an Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch can then warn you when you are exposed to loud sounds in your environment.
We always want to be cautious about being exposed to loud sounds since it can cause
hearing loss.
So for today’s question, did you know about these accessibility options and what feature
do you want to check out? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks so much for watching this video. If you received value from this video, please
like it, share, and subscribe. Hit the bell icon to be notified whenever a new video is
posted. Remember to check out the notes in the description below for more information,
and connect with Pro Fit Hearing on social media. Be a part of the Pro Fit Hearing
community!
If you're interested in hearing aids, click on the link in the description below for my
free ebook “How to Buy Hearing Aids.” Know what to ask your audiologist or hearing
aid specialist so that your hearing aids are easy to use and have all the features you're
looking for.
Remember Pro Fit Hearing brings you the best insight today's latest hearing aids, headphones,
and audio technology to improve your life. If you have concerns about your hearing, always
consult with your local physician or audiologist.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.