Hearing Aids and Hearing Loss Resources
What does hearing loss sound like?
Fred Flintstone Video Hearing Loss Simulation (1 min). Clarity is lost with hearing loss.
Click on the graphic above. Find out what people with hearing loss experience with Starkey’s Hearing Loss Simulator.
- Choose a situation
- Select the hearing loss level you want to hear
- Click Play
- Set your computer volume to 50% for the best experience
The Journey of Sound to the Brain (2+ min)
What does high-frequency hearing loss sound like? (51 seconds)
Hearing Loss
Hearing Loss Statistics (this website)
Hearing more clearly
- Use Assistive Listening Systems:
- Listen to the clean sound (this website)
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards (this website). You have civil rights and legal rights to hear in public and private places.
- Support, education, information, advocacy. Hearing Loss Association of America, HLAA (website)
- Catalogs and stores (this website) that sell assistive listening devices, including phones, personal listening systems, and TV headphones.
- Why restaurants are so loud, and what science says we can do about it 6/2/24 Washington Post (webpage)
Hearing tests
- Hearing Tests: audiologist or hearing instrument specialist, Review of 10 online hearing tests (webpage) and 2-page paper (pdf) test from Better Hearing Institute. Ida Institute: My hearing worksheet (1 page, pdf)
- Hearing Number (website)
Insurance-Medicare
AAA, ADA, and ASHA Support Critical Medicare Audiology Bill, H.R. 2757
Hearing loss research on comorbidities (risk factors. Correlations, not causations)
- Beck, D. et al. (Feb 18, 2025) Untreated Hearing Loss, Hearing Aids, and Cognition: Correlational Outcomes 2025, HearingTracker.
- The ACHIEVE study, dementia and hearing aid use (website)
- Campos et al. (14 June 2023) Consistent hearing aid use is associated with lower fall prevalence and risk in older adults with hearing loss Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Choosing An Audiologist
- Article, Hearing Health for Older Adults: What Older Adults Need to Know About Hearing Loss. National Council on Aging (NCOA). 5/13/22. Whyman and Sterkens (webpage)
- How to Find a Good Audiologist (webpage). Hearing Tracker 2022. See section on “What if I need hearing aids?”
Be an informed hearing aid user
- Open Letter (webpage) to Hard of Hearing Consumers and Patients. K. Cavitt, AuD. July 23, 2023
- NIDCD free publications on Hearing Aids, Cochlear Implants, with both English and Spanish versions. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), conducts and supports research in the normal and disordered processes of hearing, balance, taste, smell, voice, speech, and language.
Buying Hearing Aids
- OTC hearing aids: What Do Consumers Need To Know? Manchaiah et al, (webpage) and HLAA Tips (1 page, pdf)
- Hearing Aid reviews: Consumer Reports Hearing Aid Buying Guide and Hearing Tracker
- Tinnitus resources, James Henry, PhD (webpage)
Hearing Aid Industry Map v12 – Updated for 2024 (1 page, pdf).
This is the 12th edition of its map that tracks ownership, investment, and private-labeling relationships within the hearing aid industry. There are over 120 hearing aid brands and subsidiaries in organized groups under their respective parent companies. From Hearing Tracker.
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(3 pages) Two lists of hearing instruments that are ADA-compatible devices: 1. Current need: Telecoils create connectivity to ADA-compliant assistive listening systems (hearing loops, FM, infrared), now and years into …
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(2 pages). Wireless Connectivity (telecoils, Bluetooth), Hearing Aid Selection, Hearing Aid Verification and Validation Measures. HLAA Washington State.
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(2 pages) HLAA Wisconsin. Information about wireless connectivity, hearing evaluation, Audiologists and Hearing Instrument Specialists (HIS), etc.
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(2 pages) You don’t hear well and you’ve decided to do something about it. You have many unanswered questions: • Do you need a hearing aid? • Where do you …
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(2 pages) The first-time hearing aid user may wonder where to begin. This checklist guides you through getting hearing aids that match your needs and adjusting to wearing hearing aids. …
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(1 Page) Important steps as you shop for an OTC hearing aid, including a telecoil. By HLAA. Visit OTC Hearing aids (webpage) for more information