Smoke detectors are one of the most important safety devices in a home. When the ringing of a phone, a doorbell, or even an alarm from a smoke detector can’t be heard, visual and tactile cues must take their place. Event Notifications for the Hearing ImpairedĪ primary challenge for the hearing impaired is getting notification of events taking place in a home. But, given the features that smart speaker manufacturers have added to their products to make them more accessible to people with hearing impairment, touch panels, screens, and tablets don’t need to be the exclusive user interface for a smart home for people that are hearing impaired. Of course, integrators also need to remember that dedicated touch screens, tablets, and smart phones are still very viable control points for a smart home and can easily be used by someone with hearing loss. Through “Tap to Alexa” buttons, you can set a timer, set the wake-up time of the built-in alarm clock, display the weather forecast, turn smart home devices on or off, get a traffic report, and more. “Tap to Alexa” provides a way to create buttons on the screen of an Echo Show device that correspond with audible commands. Some people who have been profoundly hearing impaired from birth were not able to develop speech properly and cannot be understood by a smart speaker. For instance, Alexa captioning displays on Echo Show devices provide text captions of audible responses, captions in “near real time” for Alexa calls, and convert audio content of video broadcasts into text.Īlexa’s speaking rate also can be adjusted to make it faster or slower, so it is easier for an individual to understand, and the built-in equalizer can be used to adjust the Alexa devices sound for people with hearing loss at specific audio frequencies Amazon, for example, has built a number of features into their Alexa devices for the hearing impaired. Manufacturers also have added accessibility features for hearing-impaired people to their smart speakers. Bluetooth hearing aids can connect to the smart speaker, allowing the user to interact with it as if they didn’t have any impairment. Smart speakers are becoming the primary choice for controlling smart homes. For people whose hearing loss is too severe for hearing aids to help, closed captioning provides an alternative to the normal TV soundtrack.Ī Bluetooth transmitter can also be plugged into an audio system, and coupled to a hearing aid, to provide music from a variety of sources, including Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Internet radio, phonograph records, CDs, etc. This allows the wearer to connect directly to the TV audio track and eliminates the need to turn the volume of the TV up, which could be uncomfortable for other family members or even neighbors. However, it can still be challenging to hear a TV because of background noise from people talking, a fan operating in the room, or any other ambient sound in the room because it will also be amplified.Īn alternative approach is to connect a Bluetooth transmitter to an audio output port on the TV and utilize a hearing aid with built-in Bluetooth connectivity. Some hearing-impaired people can achieve functional hearing through the use of hearing aids. TV is still a valued form of entertainment in a smart home for people with hearing impairment. Entertainment Enhancements for People with Hearing Impairment Because of the wide range of hearing loss that people may have, there isn’t a “one solution fits all” approach for developing smart homes for people who have hearing impairment. Similar to a visual impairment, a hearing impairment can fall across a wide range of severity from mild hearing loss to profound hearing loss, which can entail complete loss of hearing. Different people will have different levels of impairment and that needs to be taken into account to properly design a smart home for them. Leveraging technology that translates audible notifications into visual and tactile ones is critical to provide a safe and convenient living situation. Hearing impaired homeowners have unique needs that a smart home integrator needs to understand to create a smart home that is optimized for their unique needs.
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