Another Challenging Environment: the Operating Room
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For instance, I regularly adjust my hearing aid and Bluetooth remote microphone volume settings using my phone. However, I cannot touch my phone while scrubbed in. Surgical scrub is an important sterilization process in the operating room to prevent infections so touching anything that is not sterile requires the individual to scrub in again.
Theoretically, I could ask someone to adjust the settings for me, but finding the settings is not obvious to those who do not use them, sometimes I need settings to be changed several times in a short period of time, and I would prefer not to give someone else my phone. I may be able to adjust the volume of my hearing aids myself, but that is still not optimal from a sterilization perspective. In addition, adjusting the volume on my hearing aids does not enable me to change the settings of my Bluetooth remote microphone.
Since my microphone is not sterile, it cannot be passed around and must be carefully worn by anyone scrubbed in. So I’ve had some challenging considerations and decisions to make. Do I give the microphone to the attending physician and not hear anyone else in the room? Or, do I not use the remote microphone and only get parts of the conversation? In the end, I learned that like many other challenging environments when you have hearing loss, it depends.
The noise levels for each surgery vary based on the surgical team and procedure type. At the start of a case, I assess the situation and decide what will work best for that case. Usually, I carefully place my remote microphone in a way that does not break surgical scrub and is also positioned so it does not amplify any movement of the wearer’s gown. To communicate with the rest of the team in the operating room, I rely on my residual hearing and make sure I’m as close to the speaker as possible. Then, I may need to summarize my understanding of what is being said and ask people to repeat when necessary. While this approach has its limitations, it gives me the least listening fatigue and leads to the best results.
As a medical student with hearing loss, the operating room poses challenges that are both similar to and different from challenges people with hearing loss face in other environments. The operating room is a unique environment acoustically and procedurally, which means I have important considerations when using assistive technologies.
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Compensation
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ICAAT expects that consumers who contribute to design and development research and testing with companies will be compensated in some way for their time, expenses incurred, experience, and perspective. This is both common and best practice.
While compensation can vary depending on the type of activity being done or the nature of the commitment, we understand that compensation can be affected by other factors as well. For example, small start-up companies may not be able to offer the same compensation rate as larger, established companies.
Whatever the compensation, companies must be transparent about the details of that compensation, or lack thereof, so consumers can make an informed decision about whether to participate. Consumers must also be given an option to leave an activity at any time if they so choose. If doing so affects compensation, then that information should be provided in advance as well.
How do I create an account to join ICAAT's Tech Forum?
Creating an account is free and easy! Click here and follow the prompts to complete the appropriate fields. Other than the required fields, you are welcome to share as much as you feel comfortable in the account profile. Please note that Industry accounts will be reviewed by the Hearing Loss Association of America. Welcome to ICAAT!
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On the User Stories page, you will find an icon on the right-hand side of the page that says “Contribute a Story.” Click the icon or go to the Contact Us page. You will need to provide your name, an email address so we can contact you, and the topic of your suggested story. We review user story submissions on quarterly basis.
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Another test for skip logic
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Strategic Thinking
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I spend a lot of time and energy thinking about the situation I'm going to be in and what strategies and hearing assistive technology would be appropriate. Let's say I'm going out to dinner with friends. I have a variety of technologies I might consider bringing.
I own two cell phones. The primary phone I use for making calls, with apps for controlling my hearing devices and other hearing accessibility features, and another phone for the speech-to-text app I prefer to use. The apps need different operating systems, which is why I have two phones. I also have a remote microphone that works well but has some usability issues that trip me up but it's much more effective than the remote microphone built into my primary phone in certain situations.
Each of these devices has different ways of charging them so if I'm bringing a battery backup in case a device runs out of power I need all the additional cables and accessories. I also need enough time to charge everything up before heading out of the house to an event. All this takes time, planning, and organization so I have some confidence in my ability to fully participate. As I said, going out isn't as easy as it used to be.
I used to just go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted without much thought. Now I have to be very mindful. Being severely hard-of-hearing as I am these days has put me in a position that I've never been in my life before, which is feeling a little less in control of things.
Teaming Up With Captions
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I’m a product designer at a technology firm, who has hearing loss. My team has a lot of virtual meetings, and I rely on captions for those meetings. Even with captions, I can miss pieces of the conversation trying to synthesize what I'm hearing with what I'm seeing via lipreading and what I'm reading in the captions. When there's a mismatch between what I got from listening and lipreading and what the captions said, I'm not always sure which is right. Luckily, my team was up for a little experiment.
We tried running a meeting with our speakers turned off, relying only on captions. From that experience, everyone realized that it was easy for team members with hearing loss to lose the thread of the conversation when something went wrong with the captions. Now we all turn our captions on. It gives all of us a chance to monitor them and share the responsibility for communicating well.
It's hard to explain what it's like to have hearing loss and communicate in a group setting. Sometimes a shared experience can really help clarify things.
