By Jack Cumming
Wouldn’t you think that a home for people who are aging would cater to the predictable changes that come with advancing age? To some extent, CCRCs do that with wide doors and balance rails. But, for many conditions, age-related adaptations simply are not common.
Hearing Loss
In today’s article, we’ll talk about one of the biggest challenges – hearing loss. Increasing befuddlement is, of course, another big one, and then there’s the challenge of diminished vision. Hearing loss, though, is a super biggie and one that should be relatively easy to address.
I’ve lived in a CCRC for many years, and now my hearing is deteriorating with the passage of time. That’s the perspective I bring. Most people, including professionals, have a limited understanding of hearing loss. It’s common to think that a hearing aid restores hearing. It doesn’t.
The simple fact is that hearing aids amplify sound, but they don’t replace the loss of clarity. In brief, ears are fragile, and clarity is easily impaired or destroyed. Once gone, it can not be restored. Amplification helps, but clarity is more important. As an example, it’s hard for me to distinguish “tariffs” from “terrorists,” and that makes a difference when trying to understand today’s news.
Commonsense.
There are sites that purport to address hearing issues in public spaces like those implicit in the congregate living vision of senior living. Some of them make sense. Many seem to be more theory than reality. Here’s what I can share from personal experience.
- The shape of the room makes a big difference. A vaulted ceiling with beams is disastrous. A large space with many echoes is impossible.
- Soft surfaces help. Hard surfaces muddy sound. Now, while youthful hearing can decipher muddy sounds so well that they seem focused, that is not the case for older, diminished hearing. Put bunting or flags near the ceiling, especially in that vaulted room. Drapes help. Carpeted floors and walls are huge.
- It’s best if the room allows those with hearing deficiency to see the speaker’s lips. Although few people are professional lip readers, those with hearing impairments read lips without even realizing it.
- Amplification should come from a central source near the speaker or video projection so that it is synchronized with the visual effect of seeing the speaker’s lips. Some sound professionals put speakers around the sides of a large room, spaced from front to back. It’s nearly impossible for those with hearing challenges to understand the resulting muddied sound.
- Multiple sound streams can make hearing both difficult and painful. For example, music can make a conversational setting, such as a cocktail party, impossible for many who are hearing challenged. The experience becomes painful if the music group prioritizes amplification over the music itself. One wonders why the group should play in person if its playing is amplified. Those same amplifiers can play recorded music, often with better results or more talented musicians.
- Although hearing aids work on the principle of in-ear amplification, excessive sound system amplification can be painful for individuals with hearing challenges and detracts from the overall experience. It also reverberates within the skull of the hearer, causing dissonance.
Given these considerations, it’s no wonder that many people with hearing challenges withdraw more and more from social interactions as their hearing diminishes. Smaller, more socialized spaces work best for them. Many dining venues in senior housing, though, are large, open spaces; many social events feature musical accompaniment; and most senior housing venues have large auditoriums that are under-optimized for hearing.
Stigma??
A related challenge is the reluctance of some residents who could benefit from hearing aids to get them, fearing they will appear old or feel that they are aging prematurely. Hearing aids are also very expensive since audiologists often make their money on markups built into the price of the devices they sell. Some vendors sell headphones, such as Eversound, Bose, or Beats, that can be made available in public spaces. Most of those solutions, though, don’t work well for those who have hearing aids.
There is an answer that works both for those with hearing aids and those who just want headphones. It’s called Auracast™. Although, like the older “hearing loop” technology, it can help those with certain hearing aids, Auracast™ is less costly and is also compatible with other headphones such as Bose® Ultra QuietComfort.
If the mission of senior living is to cushion the challenging inroads of aging when and as they occur, then senior-serving properties should have age-responsive adaptations, including, among others, effective adaptations for the many older people who have hearing challenges. If it’s a home for the aged, then it should adapt to meet the needs of those who are aging.
ack, you have highlighted the problem we face in buildings that are designed for the able bodied. Our community is experimenting with sound dampening material along the soffits of a large dining room.
Since I chair a committee on ageism and ableism, I have been researching tools for people with hidden disabilities. I came across an the Ava app which uses captions to live transcribe voice to text to provide accessibility for the deaf or hard of hearing. You do need a smart phone. You prop up the phone in front of the HOH person and as others are speaking at a four top table for example, their comments are transcribed on the phone.