SWC September 2008 Newsletter

It's always enlightening to get together with hard-of hearing advocates and hearing-industry professionals. Congress 2008, co-sponsored by the International Federation of Hard of Hearing People and the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association, was a case in point. The IFHOH World Congress is held every four years. The 8th World Congress, held in Vancouver in July 2008, was the first ever held in North America . The 9th World Congress is scheduled for 2012 in Oslo , Norway .

The theme of Congress 2008 was “a global community of communication.” It could not have been more appropriate. The congress brought together more than 570 delegates and exhibitors from 27 countries, and included dozens of workshops led by an international list of presenters. The formal sessions and informal get-togethers of delegates from all continents confirmed that we are indeed a global community of hearing-impaired people, representing one-tenth of the world's population. Wherever we live in the world, we are in the same boat, we share the same goals and dreams, our compass is pointed in the same direction and we have many fine mariners steering us toward the goal of an accessible world.

Examples of successful advocacy around the world were limitless. We heard how a hospital in Germany introduced “tailor made” patient care for the hard of hearing in a pilot project spearheaded by German advocates. We heard how advocates in Finland and elsewhere in the European Community work with other disabled and public organizations to improve accessibility in the public and private sectors. We heard how advocates in the United States lobbied public regulators to create new standards for hearing-aid-compatible cell phones. The list goes on, thanks to the tireless energy of dedicated hard-of-hearing advocates and organizations.

As Charles Laszlo and Kathy Pichora-Fuller said in their joint address to the closing plenary session of Congress 2008:

"After listening to the different sessions and people from all around the world, it is easy to be very enthusiastic about the future of our national and international organizations. There are so many people who are working very hard to make the life of hard-of-hearing people better!"

However, while there was much to celebrate, I left with a disconcerting feeling that we are adrift and we speak with a weak voice when it comes to being served by the hearing industry.

While several speakers from Britain and the United States spoke enthusiastically about the benefits of telecoils, assistive-listening devices and induction loops, hearing-industry manufacturers were touting the latest generation of hearing aids, many of which either do not include telecoils or include telecoils that are too small and weak to be used with induction loops and other assistive devices.

Why? The simple answer was that the hearing industry is a business, driven by the search for market share and profits. And today's aging baby boomers, who are encountering hearing loss for the first time, are the mass market that the industry is chasing. The industry believes it can best attract this market by designing hearing aids to be as small as possible. If baby boomers don't demand telecoils (most of them don't even know what telecoils are), the industry doesn't see the need to provide them.

Another unsettling concern with the latest generation of hearing aids is that they are designed to contain as many automated features as possible. Many use so-called "artificial intelligence" to change programs automatically in noisy environments or when a telephone receiver is near the ear. The idea is laudable: to mimic the function of the human ear without the need for the user to push buttons. However, those manual controls that manufacturers seem so eager to make obsolete are often needed when using neckloops and other assistive devices. Once again, it was made clear that these highly valued manual controls will become harder to find because the baby-boom market doesn’t want them.

Also, as most consumers are aware, manufacturers have introduced a steady stream of new hearing-aid products on the market, and they are keen to tout their many benefits. Yet industry representatives acknowledged that few of these new products are suitable for people who most need hearing aids, those with severe-to-profound hearing losses. Congress 2008 delegates were told that manufacturers generally introduce a new power aid targeting this market roughly once every five years. For some manufacturers, the length of time between new products has been even longer.

It shouldn't be that way. Hard-of-hearing advocates who attend major national and international conventions are among the world's most loyal and passionate consumers of hearing equipment and services. We eagerly await each advance in technology in the hope that it will help give us back a degree of independence. We are loyal, repeat buyers of hearing aids and assistive devices that few people in the new baby-boom market know about and understand. Yet as a market, we are small, insignificant and underserved. We clearly do a good job of advocating for ourselves with decision-makers in the hearing world. Perhaps we need to spend more energy lobbying decision-makers in the hearing industry. We may have weak ears but we are clearly capable of speaking with a strong voice.