Assistive Listening Devices

assistive listening devices

Hearing is not an all or nothing phenomenon. People show varying degrees of hearing at varying frequencies in both ears. The implications of this fact are often overlooked for a variety of reasons that include a lack of understanding about modern technology that improves access to sound.

This article is written from the perspective that Assistive Listening Systems (ALSs) can benefit many hearing aid and cochlear implant users.

Assistive Listening Systems (ALSs) are sometimes called Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs). Essentially they are amplifiers that bring sound directly into the ear. They separate the sounds, particularly speech, that a person wants to hear from background noise. They improve what is known as the “speech to noise ratio.”