Announcements

Trihear launched the ClearTV Series, a family of wireless TV streamers aimed at people with hearing loss who want a simpler way to improve television audio without using a smartphone app or creating an account. The company claims that devices connect to a television's audio output and transmit sound wirelessly to compatible headphones or hearing devices. According to Trihear, the target user is…

Sensorion, a biotech company based in France, has filed applications to begin clinical trials for a gene therapy called SENS-601, which is designed to treat a form of hearing loss that people are born with. Regulators in Canada and France have received the filings, and submissions to the FDA and Australian regulators are planned by the end of 2026. The therapy targets mutations in the GJB2 gene,…

Acousia Therapeutics announced positive top-line results from its completed Phase 2a PROHEAR study evaluating ACOU085, also known as "bimokalner," for prevention of hearing loss caused by cisplatin chemotherapy. Cisplatin is a widely used cancer drug that frequently causes permanent damage to the cochlea. In PROHEAR, more than 90% of participants, men aged 18 to 45 receiving cisplatin for…

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health has announced a new research funding program, called HEARING, that would fund development of a minimally invasive hearing system designed to interface directly with the brain's auditory cortex rather than the ear alone. Current hearing aids and cochlear implants work at the ear level. The ARPA-H program is premised on the idea that for many people,…

A research team at UMass Amherst is recruiting adults to share their opinions on over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids. Participants will receive $100 for one 1-hour session over Zoom. Who can participate: Adults ages 40 and older who fall into any of these categories: Currently use hearing aids (prescription or OTC) or other assistive listening devices Are interested in trying hearing aids for the…

A research team is recruiting adults age 50 and older who have hearing loss and use voice calls with captions to take part in a study on captioned telephone services. The research is funded by the Federal Communications Commission and conducted by MITRE, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Gallaudet University. Participants will complete four brief captioned phone conversations with a research…

The Speech Accessibility Project is recruiting adults with any degree of hearing loss to participate in a research study aimed at improving voice recognition technology for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The project is supported by Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. Participants will record speech samples and answer questions online at their own pace, using a personal computer or…

The Kennedy Center's Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD) Conference meets in Philadelphia August 11–14. LEAD is the primary national conference for arts and cultural accessibility professionals, organized by the Kennedy Center's Access/VSA International Network. Attendees include accessibility managers and ADA coordinators from museums, theaters, performing arts centers, parks, zoos,…

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and Anhui University in China published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences identifying a specific brain circuit that connects serotonin signaling to the auditory system. Using optogenetics in a mouse model, the researchers found that activating serotonin-producing neurons triggered behavioral symptoms consistent with…

At its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8, Apple confirmed that the hearing-related accessibility features it previewed in May will ship as part of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS Golden Gate, tvOS 27, and visionOS 27, expected in fall 2026. The Generated Subtitles feature will automatically produce on-screen transcriptions for videos that do not already include captions, working systemwide across…