Mitsuhiko Ogawa
All Japan Association of Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened People

1.The Situation of People Who Are Hard of Hearing

According to the data from JapanTrak 2018 (Japan Hearing Instruments Manufacturers Association), it is estimated that 11.3% of the total population, or more than 14 million people in Japan, have difficulty hearing.  Among them, the hearing aid ownership rate is 14.4%, or about 2 million people.  It is estimated that the remaining 12 million or more are hard of hearing but do not use hearing aids.  It is estimated that there are tens of thousands of people with a severe hearing impairment who do not use hearing aids or cochlear implants at all.

By age, the number of such people tends to increase as they get older.  18.0% of people aged 65-74 and 43.7% of people aged 75 and over are experiencing difficulty in hearing.

In general, the longer the period of hearing loss and the severer the hearing loss becomes, the higher the percentage of people using hearing aid and information support equipment becomes.  On the other hand, for those who are suffering from hearing loss due to old age, there is a tendency that many of them do not access information to improve their condition or do not actively try to improve even if they feel inconvenient or have difficulties.

People in diverse situations have their own needs of “wanting to hear better” and “wanting to see and address their difficulties.”  In this article, I will introduce the devices that are effective from my point of view.

2.Hearing Better

(1) To Hear with Unaided Ears

① TV

When hearing becomes difficult, people with age-related hearing loss tend to make the sound of the TV louder, which could be annoying to the surrounding family members.  If you use headphones or earphones, you can hear well, but in many cases you cannot hear the sound from the speakers, and so you cannot enjoy watching TV with the people around you.

Some people are reluctant to use earphones.  Moreover, the farther away you are from the TV, the more likely you would have difficulty hearing the words.

In this case, for those who want to listen with unaided ears, I recommend using a wireless speaker system for TV sets.  There are various types of speakers available.  I would recommend that you use a speaker with which you can wirelessly control the volume and sound quality of the TV programs you are watching.  For those who are not good at operating equipment, simple products with few buttons are preferred.  Using earphones is good for families with students who want to focus on their studies.

The product in Photo 1 can be used at a distance of 30 m from the TV set.  If you use the RCA output of the TV set, you can use it without being affected by the volume of the speakers of the TV set.  For example, if you mute the TV and listen only to the sound from the speakers at hand, you can reduce the sound going out of your room.

Photo 1:  Wireless speaker system for TV: SP-A900-W (JVC) (Discretionary price)
https://www.jvc.com/jp/brand/

② Telephone

As hearing loss progresses, it becomes difficult to hear through the phone.  If you have moderate hearing loss of 60 dB or less, you can use telephones on the market with your unaided ears.  You can choose a telephone with a handset giving you a louder voice or a phone with a volume booster.

If you want to use a conventional telephone handset, a phone amplifier that amplifies the earpiece volume is convenient.  “TeleAmp III” of JiritsuCom, Inc. in Photo 2 may be used with unaided ears even for people with severe hearing loss which is up to about 80 dB on the good ear side.  You may use it by connecting it between the telephone’s main unit and the handset.  It is easy to operate as you can control the volume knob to reach the desired volume.  It can be used for a wide range of phones, such as a business phone or a handset of a fax machine.  I suggest you try to check the volume of the sound before purchasing.

Photo 2:  TeleAmp III UA45 (JiritsuCom, Inc.)
https://www.jiritsu.com/products/detail.php?id=79

(2) Listening with a Hearing Aid or Cochlear Implant

① Hearing loop (magnetic loop)

Hearing aids and cochlear implants for people with severe or profound deafness may be equipped with magnetic coils named T mode, MT mode and the like.  The mechanism works in such a way that magnetism is emitted from the earpiece of the telephone, and the other party’s voice is clearly heard through the magnetic coil of the hearing aid.  If this function is used, the sound of the voice is not affected by ambient noise.  This system has been used for hearing aids since about 1955.  So, it is a function that you might keep in mind when purchasing hearing aids.

There are also convenient products such as tie loops and silhouette coils that can be used like headphones with these hearing aids.  Please contact a specialized hearing aid retailer for more information.

② Various wireless systems

For hearing aids and cochlear implants, each manufacturer has been improving its wireless communication technologies in recent years.  You can comfortably hear the sound from a microphone, TV, telephone, smartphone that reaches the hearing aid/cochlear implant directly and wirelessly.  It is highly effective. There are variations depending on the manufacturers, and the price is also different, so please ask specialized hearing aid stores for details.

3.Reading to Understand

(1) Subtitles in TV Programs, etc.

Most TV models supporting digital broadcasting and One-Seg TV currently on the market have a subtitle function.  You can watch the programs with subtitles for free just by pressing the subtitle button on the remote controller.

It is nice that there is an increasing number of services in various media that offer subtitles, such as DVDs, online program distribution services, and video hosting services.

(2) Speech Recognition

Smartphones have various visual services that even people with hearing impairment can utilize to get information, which is very useful.

Especially in recent years, the use of speech recognition apps that can be downloaded to smartphones has expanded.  Among the various types available, the popular ones are UDTalk, KoeTra, etc.  They display the text of the speech spoken to the smartphone in characters. Please note that the recognition accuracy often depends on the speaker’s articulation, noise environment, radio wave conditions, etc.

UDTalk, in particular, is suitable for continuous use for a long time.  Please check the website for details.

UDTalk: https://udtalk.jp/
KoeTra: https://www.koetra.jp/

Products dedicated to speech recognition are also available.  “Tablet mimi,” as in Photo 3, produced by SOURCENEXT CORPORATION displays speeches in text by simply pressing the button and placing it near the speaker.  It is in the shape of a tablet, but it is not as versatile as iPad.  It is focused on speech recognition alone.  It is a very easy-to-use product with few buttons to press.  The photo is the actual display that I showed at the hospital window.

Please note that the recognition accuracy often depends on the environment, as with speech recognition apps.

Photo 3:  Tablet mimi (SOURCENEXT CORPORATION)
https://mimi33.jp/