Top products and equipment for deaf or hard of hearing people

There are many products available to help those with hearing loss. If you have suffered hearing loss due to an accident or because of workplace conditions, find out if you are eligible to make a claim by filling out our quick claim form.

If you are deaf or have problems with hearing then your day-to-day life can be significantly affected. Thankfully there are a growing number of useful products available to help those with hearing problems to do everything from enjoy the television, follow conversations and be notified when someone is at the door.

Below we run through some of the top household equipment for those who are deaf or have hearing loss.

For more information, read our full Living with hearing loss guide.

Phones for the hard of hearing

Products to help people with hearing difficulties use the phone are very popular, with textphones, telephone amplifiers and specially adapted mobile phones available.

Textphones

If you are not able to use a standard telephone, then a textphone can help you stay in touch with friends and family.

Textphones have a full keyboard and display screen so you can have a real-time, one-to-one conversation via texting.

They are particularly useful for people who are profoundly deaf or have severe hearing difficulties which prevent them from being able to follow a spoken phone conversation.

Telephone amplifiers

For those with hearing loss, telephone amplifiers can help to increase the volume of your current phone - so you can carry on enjoying conversations with loved ones without having to change your phone.

Phone amplifiers tend to be small boxes that plug-in to your standard corded telephone and feature volume controls so you can customise the volume coming through the receiver.

If you are looking for hard of hearing phones you can buy specialist amplified telephones that feature extra loud volume controls without the need to buy an extra amp.

Mobile phones for the hard of hearing

If you are hard of hearing and use hearing aids, you need to consider mobile phones that are compatible with your hearing aids.

Nowadays, all smartphones have Bluetooth - so it may be the case that you need to update your hearing aids to make sure they are also Bluetooth enabled.

Another consideration when it comes to mobile phones is the contract deal you opt for. If you are hard of hearing you may want to shape your contract so you get more data and text messages, rather than paying for phone call minutes you won't use.

Hearing aids

There are many hearing aid accessories available to help those with hearing difficulties. These can include hearing aid headphones for the TV, radio etc. as well as a hearing loop for TV.

Roger Pen

Phonak's Roger Pen is a wireless microphone that can be used along with your hearing aids. The Roger Pen is designed to help you hear and understand speech even with a lot of background noise and over distances.

It works by transmitting a signal to your hearing aids via a special receiver. For almost every hearing aid or cochlear implant, there is a receiver available that is compatible with a Roger Pen.

Doorbells

Along with being able to use the telephone, hearing the doorbell is another common concern for people who have hearing loss.

Doorbells for the hard of hearing are therefore a very popular product, and there's a lot of different products to choose from.

From loud doorbells to those that link to a vibrating pad or flashing light in your front room, there are now doorbell products for the hard of hearing or deaf to suit all individual needs and requirements.

Fire alarms

Being made aware of a fire in your house is pretty important, but if you are deaf or hard of hearing you cannot rely on traditional fire and smoke alarms to alert you to a potential problem.

As with doorbells, you can now find smoke alarms for the hard of hearing that link up to a flashing light or a vibrating pad to alert you if there is a fire at night.

Alarm clocks

Alarm clocks are one of those everyday items that are very easy to take for granted. If you are deaf or have hearing loss, you will understand the difficulty associated with not being able to hear your alarm clock.

Thankfully there are solutions, with vibrating pads and pillows available to help wake you up if you are hard of hearing.

Pillow speakers

Pillow speakers are most useful for those who suffer from tinnitus, which is more noticeable and distracting when it's quiet e.g. at night when you are trying to sleep.

The constant buzzing, ringing or humming you experience with tinnitus can make it difficult to fully switch off and go to sleep, so a pillow speaker that emits soothing sound therapy can help massively.

Pillow speakers are designed to not disturb others, so you can create your own personal sound oasis to drift softly off to sleep.