Announcements

A USA TODAY feature has drawn attention to a longstanding accessibility gap in air travel: gate and in-flight announcements delivered only through audio, which leave travelers with hearing loss without access to critical information. Missed announcements can include gate changes, boarding calls, delays, diversions, and safety instructions during emergencies. According to the National Institute on…

A new Virginia law that took effect July 1 requires most movie theaters in the state to offer open-captioned screenings. Open captions display a film's dialogue, speaker names, and sound descriptions directly on the screen, unlike closed captioning devices that individual viewers request and hold. The law is applicable to companies that own, operate, or lease five or more locations in Virginia.…

Two organizations in Albuquerque, Grace Lutheran Church and the Albuquerque Hearing and Balance clinic, are among the first in the Albuquerque area to deploy Auracast broadcast audio. Both were early adopters of hearing loop technology, and in each case the new Auracast system supplements an existing hearing loop rather than replacing it, giving people with hearing loss another way to receive…

A Federal Communications Commission rule requiring TV captioning display settings to be easier to access takes effect on August 17, 2026. People who use captions have long reported that adjusting how captions appear, including font, size, color, and background, often means digging through confusing menus that differ from one device to the next. The rule applies to TV manufacturers and to video…

The International Association for Hearing Accessibility (IAHA) has established a working group to review hearing accessibility regulations across different countries, identify gaps, and coordinate with local stakeholders to expand access to assistive listening technologies. According to IAHA, more than one billion people worldwide experience some degree of hearing difficulty, yet access to…

Brighton railway station in the UK has become the first train station to install a permanent Auracast-based assistive listening system. The system, called Auri, was co-developed by Ampetronic and Listen Technologies and broadcasts public address announcements directly to compatible hearing aids, cochlear implants, headphones, and smartphones. Train stations are difficult listening environments.…

Have you used an implanted or home-use medical device over the past 5 years? Do you have thoughts about the labeling or the instructions that came with it? If so, the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) is looking for patients and caregivers to share their experiences during a virtual town hall for CDRH staff. The town hall will take place on Thursday, September 3, 2026. What's…

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…