Phones
ClearSounds IL40: An In-Line Telephone Amplifer For All Seasons
Usually hotel telephones are a nightmare for me. They almost never work, even with my telecoil setting turned on and my hearing-aid volume set as high as it will go. (And then, insult is added to injury when the first call I want to make is to complain about the closed-captioning on the TV set not working, but I have to schlepp to the front desk in person to complain instead). I have the same problem with phones I try to use at clients, at friends’ houses… anywhere other than home, where I can rely on my trusty amplified desktop phone. But on our recent trip to New York, I tried out a ClearSounds IL40 Portable Telephone Amplifier, and now I believe my hotel phone problems may have disappeared forever. When I plugged it into the standard hotel-room phone, all of a sudden I could hear the voice at the front desk as well as if I were calling from home. In no time I was making dinner reservations, calling the parking attendant, and just for fun, calling for the local weather.
The ClearSounds IL40 is a deceptively simple little black box that sits between the telephone handset and base. A special connector cord links the base to one end of the amplifier, and the phone cord plugs into the other end. The ClearSounds IL40 is a new breed of phone amplifier that includes sophisticated new features that, for me, make the difference between a phone amplifier that works and one that doesn’t. First-generation of amplifiers often suffered from compatibility problems, so depending on what kind of phones you wanted them to work with, it was a hit or miss proposition whether they would work for you. The new ClearSounds product has a dial with 20 settings on the bottom that will make it compatible with virtually any phone you want to use it with. And whereas first-generation amplifiers had simple volume controls, the Clearsounds IL40 has variable tuning for both volume and tone, enabling you to adjust the signal according to the kind of hearing loss you have and the kind of connection you get. That’s a lot of sophisticated circuitry fitting into such an unassuming package.It provides you with the best possible shot at comprehension, regardless of the quality of the phone or connection. Powered by two AA-sized batteries, the unit is good to go on any trip as well as for use at home. The ClearSound IL40 makes good use of sophisticated technology already built into other ClearSounds products, including the ClearSounds CLA7 Amplified Power Neckloop, the Clearsounds CLC40 and CLC50 Amplified Desktop Phones, and the Clearsounds A50 Amplified Cordless Phone. ClearSounds is a company whose stated charter is to meet the needs of hard-ofhearing consumers. It did a lot of work developing new technology and integrating extremely useful features into its initial products. And it’s great to see ClearSounds intelligently and aggressively leveraging these features and technologies across its product line.
Hearing Aids And Cellphones: One Step Forward, Half A Step Back
Making a cellphone easy to use with a hearing aid is devilishly hard. Both devices are packed with so many chips and other digital electronics that electromagnetic interference causing feedback, static and distortion is bound to occur in one or both devices. Last week, the cellphone/hearing-aid industry coalition that is racing to meet Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements for hearing-aid compatibility issued a good-news, bad-news update. According to a news release from the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, its Hearing Aid Compatibility (HAC) group “has performed extensive work and believes that wireless manufacturers generally will meet the regulatory requirements defined by the FCC….” (Good news). “However, the wireless industry has recently documented several challenges to achieving FCC-required HAC compatibility measurements for GSM handset devices operating in the 850 MHz frequency band. This reported challenge appears to be industry-wide.” (Bad news). The upshot is that while most new cellphones will work with hearing aids, as mandated by the U.S. government, some apparently will not. Like reputable hearing-aid vendors, many cellphone manufacturers offer 30-day “try-before-you-buy” trials of their products. If you’re buying a cellphone, taking advantage of this trial period, even if it’s a hassle, is a must. Because for the time being, the watchword for hearing-impaired cellphone consumers must remain “buyer beware.”
A Comment on Amplified Phone Design
You can tell it’s an amplified phone by the size of the buttons. A lot of hearing impaired people are old, and a lot of old people also have trouble with their vision. Therefore, most amplified phones are designed with HUGE buttons with ENORMOUS numbers on them. It’s great the manufacturers can kill two birds with one stone. But consumers aren’t birds. I don’t need the big buttons, thank you. I see the small ones just fine. (I feel a little like the two deaf people in the coffee shop: when the waiter sees them conversing in sign language, he very helpfully brings them menus written in Braille). Like a lot of the marketing decisions hearing-assistance manufacturers make, the design of amplified phones is turning off what should be their most attractive target market: consumers in their 30s, 40s or 50s who will only be ordering more hearing assistance gear as time goes on. I think that’s why the manufacturers have had such a difficult time appealing to Baby Boomers, especially those who grew up in the 1960s and vowed to never get old.
Bells and Whistles: My Search for the Perfect Amplified Phone
I recently went through a long process acquiring an amplified phone. If you’re a phone junkie like I am, you will want all the bells and whistles, even the ones you rarely use. Until recently, there wasn’t much to choose from. Perhaps the market for these souped-up devices was just so small, or the technology to make phones work well for hearing-impaired people was so expensive, that most phone manufacturers didn’t bother. However, recently we have seen an increasing number of options available, from both traditional and new suppliers. Costs of the technology are coming down. And my guess is that as baby boomers enamored of their cellphones, Walkmen, iPods, and Bluetooth ear pieces lose their resistance to amplified hearing assistance, the market for even slicker devices for the hearing-impaired will really open up.
I ended up with a new ClearSounds 40XLC Amplified Phone with Caller ID, from Hitec Assistive Communications Products. Today I will talk only about my search for an amplified, wired desktop phone. In future posts I will talk about the exciting new developments in amplification for cellphones and in amplified wireless handsets for use in the home and office.
The first place to look when shopping for an amplified phone is the many distributor sites on the web. Several of the most prominent, each with a broad selection are Phone Merchants, Harris Communications and Hear More. They make ordering from the web quite easy. But before you make an impulse purchase from a distributor, look closely at the equipment they are offering, then see if you can find the website of the manufacturer behind the equipment. Sometimes you can get it direct from the manufacturer, or at least the manufacturer may give you a better description of the product and the technology in it.
One manufacturer of several popular brands is Clarity, a division of Plantronics, the maker of those ubiquitous headsets you see on the heads of office workers, call center employees and NFL football coaches. Clarity makes popular amplification products under the Clarity, Walker and Ameriphone brand names that have helped set standards in amplification for several decades.
But the ClearSounds model that seduced me has an enormous number of the latest high-tech features packed in a black handset that’s a little more sleek and modern looking than some of the more traditional amplified phone designs. It also has an LCD display on it that lights up nicely. Not only does it offer caller ID, but it stores lists of recent calls that can be automatically dialed, and it has nine programmable keys for one-button dialing of favorite numbers. These are features I really wanted, having gotten used to them with digital phones at work and my digital cellphone.
I also wanted maximum amplification. The ClearSounds model I got features a regular volume setting, a sliding button to increase the volume, a push-button on the console to pump up the volume to the next level, which can also be adjusted by the sliding button, and then a push-button on the handset which pumps up the volume yet another level. In all you can amplify up to 50 decibels, which when I did my search wasi 25 percent more than the highest amplification offered by the other manufacturers.
The ClearSounds also offers two jacks — 2.5 mm and 3.5 mm — for headphones and neckloops that transmit the phone conversation into telecoil-equipped hearing aids. I’ve got a 48-inch neckloop with a 3.5 mm plug, so I get the caller’s voice in both hearing aids in addition to using the amplified handset which I use with the hearing aid in my better right ear. It’s about as much amplification as a person can stand, but it’s enabled me to use the phone on a much more “normal” basis for business. Having the induction loop transmitting the conversation into both hearing aids is a godsend, because the hearing impairment in both ears is unbalanced and I get a lot more of conversation when it’s in stereo, with each ear making up somewhat for the other’s deficiencies.
I can also use my 2.5 mm neckloop which I purchased from Motorola for use with my cellphone. That has a microphone in it, so I don’t need to use the telephone handset at all. The amplification isn’t as tremendous as when I use the handset along with the other neckloop, but on occasions I like to have my hands free to work the computer while I’m on the phone. So having the second jack is a nice option which I didn’t see on any of the other products.
Hitec apparently is a long-time distributor that has recently started manufacturing some of its own products incorporating its own technologies. With the ClearSounds phone it seems to have gotten the right combination of advanced features for people with mild-to-severe hearing loss.
