Can anybody help me in my quest to find a quality phone for my hearing impaired mother? Her old phone recently died and finding a new quality phone she can hear adequately on is proving difficult. If anybody has experience with the hearing impaired I would appreciate any suggestions on phones.
A while back I looked into phones for my elderly grandfather, and found the Ameriphone P-300 Photo Phone. It features oversize buttons and photo dialing, but it also has adjustable volume and tone settings, and is hearing-aid compatible. It’s $40. I never got one for Grandpa so I can’t vouch for the quality, but Ameriphone seems to be a leading brand for the vision and hearing impaired.
Also, just the other day I was looking through a Hammacher Schlemmer catalog, and they offer a cordless, clarity-enhancing phone. At $190 it’s considerably more expensive, but it’s the only other one I’ve seen.
Hope this helps!
Thanks Misnomer. My father has bought an Ameriphone for her. However, all it does is amplify the telephone noise. This works, but it amplifies all the static and background noise as well. I was wondering if there was some type of technology which filtered the noise to minimize crackle before amplifying it. Anyone?
Hi Spezza,
I work a lot with hearing impaired individuals. Speaker phone, speaker phone, speaker phone. Find a good one. Does she wear hearing aids? There are phones with volume controls on the handset etc.
Spezza, I’m hoh myself…try googling Harris Commuications…they have all sorts of lovely high tech phone for the deaf and hard of hearing!
Geesh, it only takes a few minutes to create a link for someone… 
Here are the Harris pages for corded amplified phones and cordless amplified phones, but they have a bunch of other stuff, too. Though I’m not sure whether “amplified” just makes all of the noise louder, or if it actually helps with clarity (like the Hammacher Schlemmer phone claims to, despite the description only talking about volume).
Thanks all, hopefully I will be able to find one she can use comfortably.
Lao Tsu, yes she does wear hearing aids. Without them she cannot hear, basically. Also, thank you for the speaker phone suggestion. She has never used them before and I have never thought about it for her. I will give it a try.
Or talk with your local audiologist – they should have at least a clue about what might be available out there.
Our 10yo son wears hearing aids. He doesn’t use the phone much for a variety of reasons, but his hearing aids do have a T-coil in them. The T-coil is essentially a device that should work with most modern phones to improve hearing without having to fiddle with volume controls, or positioning the phone differently. Virtually all new phones are t-coil compatible these days, too–even the $20 cordless phone we just bought a couple of weeks ago. Essentially, the sound travels by induction waves straight from the phone receiver to the hearing aid’s t-coil.
Instead of looking at phones, you might want to have Mom talk to an audiologist about the problem. It may be that her hearing aids already have a t-coil in them that just needs to be turned on or adjusted. The audiologist may also be able to recommend a specific phone that works well with those particular hearing aids.
Kim
The Sharper Image catalog arrived today (yep, I’m a bit of a catalog whore), and I noticed their “Loud & Flashing Amplified Telephone” for $90. Like many of their products it seems overpriced, but they claim that the tone and volume are adjustable (on both the ringer and the line).
Slaps head d’oh! I forgot about the t-coil!!! I jsut discovered the t-coil…and it’s amazing…you can flick the switch, turn it WAY up and can hear…it’s also damn amazing about fllitering out background noise…I can talk on the phone with the music BLASTING, and have no trouble whatsoever!
OT but what color are your son’s hearing aids? I LOVE the colored aids…they rawk! Does your son Sign at all? Sorry…I just get so excited when I see little kids with hearing aids (both on and offline!)