An hearing aid should be used to hear and understand!

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?An hearing aid should be used to hear and understand!

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Unfortunately, 17 years after the French ?law on accessibility and the implementation of compulsory installations of magnetic loops for the establishments open to the public, all manufacturers and a large part of the audio prosthetists in the world, still consider the "T" position of hearing aids as optional and lower-ranked solution!

Audio Frequency Induction Loop System, is a technology composed of a loop amplifier, converting an audio signal into electric pulses. These electric pulses are send to a copper wire, the loop, creating a magnetic field in which the audio signal is transmitted. ?Any hearing aid user using the T position will capture this pure clear signal, free from background noise.

?The T position or ??T??eleco?l is composed of a small copper coil, positioned inside the hearing aid which, by induction, captures this magnetic field and directly restores in the microprocessor the sound which is then sent in the ear of the user with its own adapted hearing correction.?This technology is more than approved since it has existed for over 70 years!

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-Millions of hearing impaired people are deprived of accessibility!

How can it be that in 2022 not all hearing aids for moderate to severe hearing loss are equipped with this technology?

- The T-position of hearing aids is not and should no longer be a secondary option!

The T-position should no longer be an option,

?The only possible option should be for the consumer to choose not to have it which nevertheless would deprive himself of taking advantage of all the accessibility that is offered to him in establishments in Europe but also throughout the world!?

The situation is terrible today! Most hearing-impaired people are kept away from the auditory accessibility of establishments because of the withholding of information on the subject by hearing care professionals.

- Bluetooth and its limits in terms of mass accessibility

I know that these professionals will all tell you about the new Bluetooth or other technologies, but universal accessibility requires constraints in terms of universality, durability, non-discrimination and non-stigmatization that are incompatible with these modern technologies for the moment!

The new technologies mentioned above (because they are already adapted to this specific need, which is not at all the case) cannot meet these criteria today and for at least ten years after they are put on the market (the average time for the total renewal of the fleet of hearing aids so that they can be mostly technologically compatible).

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But then, what about the possible evolutions of these modern technologies?

?Bluetooth protocols are evolving so fast that those of less than ten years ago are no longer relevant today...

Now it is quite clear that this Bluetooth technology brings a real comfort to hearing aid wearers for domestic and private uses (television and telephone).

This is why manufacturers and hearing aid practitioners are currently promoting this Bluetooth solution as a real plus for the patient's hearing comfort in the rather quiet environment of their home or during a private telephone conversation.

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So how can they consider that the hearing aid can stand on its own in the disturbed sound environments that can be the places where one receives the public?

- What needs to be done to correct this error?

- It is essential to legislate the obligation to include in all contractual and commercial documents of manufacturers a clear and uniform indication of the compatibility or non-compatibility of their products with the regulations on magnetic loops.

- It is important that they advertise this universal accessibility technology in their commercial documentation in the same way and in synergy with digital connectivity technologies. One and the other can never be indissociable.

- We must reintroduce in the product ranges the remote controls for the choice of hearing aid programs in order to facilitate the ergonomics of use for the greatest number of people. (We can associate a remote control application through the smartphone, but the obligation to own a smartphone is not compatible with the principles of universal accessibility)

- But then why?

In what interests do manufacturers and hearing aid practitioners refuse to offer this technology to their patients?

Who benefits from this state of affairs? Well, as strange as it may seem, it seems to me that it is more due to negligence, or even a marketing error, that the hearing aid industry is dragging its feet in allowing millions of hearing impaired people in the world to access the accessibility that the different governments in the world are implementing in establishments open to the public.

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