Originally Updated: Sep 29, 2022
Written by:
Alex Bass

Today’s hearing aids are more discreet and technologically advanced than ever, especially considering the original hearing aid was the ear trumpet, a horn held to the ear for people to speak into.

Despite these advancements in style and function, people needing hearing aids may still be reluctant to get them.

Untreated hearing loss can lead to communication problems that cause older adults to socially withdraw and be perceived as confused. Lack of social engagement is thought to increase older adults’ risk of dementia and hasten physical decline. Hearing aids not only compensate for hearing loss but also keep older adults connected to their families and communities for healthier aging.

2022 Hearing Aid Survey – Aging In Place.org full article

December 1, 2022
LAUREN WEBER

A Missouri man who is deaf and blind said a medical bill he didn’t know existed was sent to debt collections, triggering an 11% rise in his home insurance premiums.

In a different case, from California, an insurer has suspended a blind woman’s coverage every year since 2010 after mailing printed “verification of benefits” forms to her home that she cannot read, she said. The problems continued even after she got a lawyer involved.

And still another insurer kept sending a visually impaired Indiana woman bills she said she could not read, even after her complaint to the Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights led to corrective actions.

Medical Bills Remain Inaccessible for Many Visually Impaired Americans full article

Bigger text, zoom features, voice typing, and screen readers for Android phones and iPhones can make life easier, even if you don’t have serious visual impairments By Melanie Pinola
November 12, 2022

“I’ve never looked through normal eyes,” says John-Ross Rizzo, MD, who was born with a retinal dystrophy, a progressive eye disease that currently has no cure, and is legally blind.

As an associate professor at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Rizzo works on tech initiatives to improve the lives of people with blindness and low vision. His projects include everything from wearable technology to help people navigate cities during a commute, to an app repository (or app store) for the visually impaired.

If You Have Vision Problems, These Phone Accessibility Settings Can Help full article

By Sean O’Shea Global News
Posted November 10, 2022

Rogers Communications is apologizing to a legally-blind Richmond Hill woman after she was left without phone service for nine days in October.

“They really throw you to the wolves, don’t they?” said Joan Connolly, who says she’s been a Rogers customer for about 45 years.

The 81-year-old had no access to 911 service for more than a week during which time she could not place or receive any calls because her phone line was shifted to another carrier, without her consent.

Connolly received a phone call from a Rogers customer representative on October 21 asking her to confirm a request to move her phone service to another carrier, a process known as porting.

Rogers Gives Away Blind Woman’s Phone Service for 9 Days full article

Accessibility overlays are not the answer for sites looking to provide a more inclusive experience for online users with disabilities. Casey Markee on November 10, 2022

It is estimated that around 61 million Americans live with a disability. This represents about 18% of the total population of the United States as of the 2022 Census. Viewed another way, that 61 million figure would represent the entire population of the countries of South Africa or Italy.

This number is usually broken down into four distinct groups, with most groups sharing overlapping disabilities:

Are You Using an Accessibility Overlay to Help Disabled Users? Don’t! full article

• Visual Impairments (around 12 million).
• Hearing Impairments (around 48 million).
• Intellectual Impairments (around 6.5 million).

by Michelle Diament | October 4, 2022

Some of the biggest names in technology are part of a newly launched effort to expand accessibility of smartphones and other devices for those with disabilities.

Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft are joining with a handful of nonprofit organizations to support the Speech Accessibility Project, a research initiative at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign aimed at helping make voice recognition technology more useful for people with various disabilities.

Currently, voice assistants like Siri and Alexa and translation tools don’t always understand individuals with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and other conditions that may impact speech patterns. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, the new effort is looking to address that disparity.

Apple, Google Among Tech Giants Committing To Improve Accessibility full article

Prepared poll workers can help make voting a positive experience for deaf and hard of hearing voters, said an expert from the Harkin Institute. Author: Samantha Mesa
Published: September 30, 2022

DES MOINES, Iowa – People who are deaf and hard of hearing face unique challenges this general election, including accessibility and information.

A couple of the questions some hearing-impaired voters may have:

Will I be able to cast my vote at the polls?
How can I become informed about who’s on the ballot?

Those who are deaf and people with hearing impairments make up the largest minority population in the United States.

Deaf, Hard of Hearing Individuals May Face Barriers at the Polls full article