Hearing Aid Technos Aren’t Listening!

You know, as I got older one of the things I noticed was the tactile ability of my fingers was decreasing. Now that might not sound like much of a problem but folks who age in that way do have difficulty. Holding my guitar pick is more difficult as without that tactile-ness it can even slip right through my fingers! As if slippery picks weren’t a problem before. And that brings me to my point.

It’s not just tactile ability that is challenging to people growing older, it’s everything else; our stamina, the fragility of our bones, our eyesight, and of course, our hearing! Several years ago I read where a techno company started making larger hand-held phones for the aged in Japan with buttons the size of New York! There was a frenzy of activity in the consumer market. But that seems to be as far as ‘fixing the problem’ has gone. None of that cultural-techno-savvy bled over into the realm of hearing loss.

What we see in the market are itsy, bitsy state-of-the-art hearing aid gizmos that all but get lost in the ear canal. My father, may he rest in peace, more than twenty years ago had a molded hearing aid with buttons so small it was a wonder he ever got it to stop squealing with all that twisting and turning and flipping knobs the size of pin heads!

I want the industry to take notice: a good number of us with hearing loss and tactile challenges wouldn’t mind a hearing aid that stuck out of our ear like the latest Jawbone Bluetooth receiver! And while you’re at it, why not make it a multi-function hearing aid with phone and aid combined? I can see myself riding in the electric cart at Walmart tapping my incognito hearing aid as if I were an agent on assignment to take that call! To hear the chatter around me or to talk to the Dr.’s office secretary while on duty shopping would be great, only needing a couple taps with the finger. At the worst, I’d appear to be a savvy old guy with the latest techno phone gadget! So guys, combine all of it into one big hang-out-of-the-ear finger tapping gizmo!