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I'm very glad to see this ruling. iPhones gained this compatibility some time ago, basically as long as I've been wearing hearing aids (9 years?). I imagine Android phones have had it for a similar period of time. It's really a boon for those of us who are hard of hearing. Otherwise, you're going to have more people flipping their phone to speakerphone and shouting more.
There's no specific timeline yet as to when all manufactured mobile phones must be compatible.
My hearing aids, Widex, are exceptionally cool. They have a three-band equalizer that lets me reshape the sound to a limited degree for the environment. I can reduce road noise in long drives, I can also apply a directional filter in noisy restaurants that makes it a bit easier to hear my wife when she's sitting next to me.
It's pretty amazing what they can do these days! But not all brands can do this. We have a new young woman working at the library who wears them, her brand and app can't do these things.
Two years ago the FCC opened up the market for third-party makers to produce hearing aids. It has had mixed success. These hearing aids aren't as powerful as the ones you get from an audiologist, and I don't know how tunable they are for specific correction curves.
Apple just released a new EarPod that has been approved by the FCC/FDA as a specific hearing aid, and with a recent model iPhone includes a hearing test capability. But there's a couple of problems with it. First, the battery is only good for about six hours of continuous use, I wear mine for typically twelve hours a day or more and replace the batteries every seven or eight days. Second, you have to wear those white pods in your ears all day long. I don't find them comfortable, and it looks like you're listening to music and tuning out the environment around you so you're less approachable to people. But the big problem is that currently they're only good for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. Me, I'm more on the scale of moderate to large hearing loss, so they'd probably be a non-starter for me. But I think they might be very good for a lot of people.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/17/all-mobile-phones-must-be-hearing-aid-compatible-under-new-fcc-rules/
https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/24/10/17/2049232/all-mobile-phones-must-be-hearing-aid-compatible-under-new-fcc-rules
There's no specific timeline yet as to when all manufactured mobile phones must be compatible.
My hearing aids, Widex, are exceptionally cool. They have a three-band equalizer that lets me reshape the sound to a limited degree for the environment. I can reduce road noise in long drives, I can also apply a directional filter in noisy restaurants that makes it a bit easier to hear my wife when she's sitting next to me.
It's pretty amazing what they can do these days! But not all brands can do this. We have a new young woman working at the library who wears them, her brand and app can't do these things.
Two years ago the FCC opened up the market for third-party makers to produce hearing aids. It has had mixed success. These hearing aids aren't as powerful as the ones you get from an audiologist, and I don't know how tunable they are for specific correction curves.
Apple just released a new EarPod that has been approved by the FCC/FDA as a specific hearing aid, and with a recent model iPhone includes a hearing test capability. But there's a couple of problems with it. First, the battery is only good for about six hours of continuous use, I wear mine for typically twelve hours a day or more and replace the batteries every seven or eight days. Second, you have to wear those white pods in your ears all day long. I don't find them comfortable, and it looks like you're listening to music and tuning out the environment around you so you're less approachable to people. But the big problem is that currently they're only good for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. Me, I'm more on the scale of moderate to large hearing loss, so they'd probably be a non-starter for me. But I think they might be very good for a lot of people.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/17/all-mobile-phones-must-be-hearing-aid-compatible-under-new-fcc-rules/
https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/24/10/17/2049232/all-mobile-phones-must-be-hearing-aid-compatible-under-new-fcc-rules
