Technology plays a crucial role in elevating our quality of life, and there's no better example of this than the tech used in health and wellness spaces.
For example, there's a wide range of self-care tools to help with your circadian rhythm or improve air quality in your home, which boosts both mental and physical health outcomes. Smart tech can help with tracking your health data, and can even be a great way to track simple habits like your water intake. For people living with disabilities, these technological interventions can spell a huge difference in improving comfort, quality of life, mobility, and much more.
Take hearing loss, for example. Hearing loss affects more than 1.5 billion people worldwide, with 430 million of them having disabling hearing loss. If left unaddressed, hearing loss and impairment can impact individuals at varying levels, from social isolation and stigma to unemployment and loss of productivity due to years lived with disability.
The good news is that medical interventions like hearing aids can improve the quality of life of deaf individuals. Research published in the journal Cureus notes that these hearing technologies are not only cost-effective treatments but can also positively influence quality-of-life outcomes, including physical health, psychological health, and social relationships.
Interestingly, due to continuous innovation, hearing solutions are expanding beyond traditional hearing aids. While hearing aid use is already positively associated with health and quality of life improvements, below are new technologies that the deaf and hard-of-hearing populations can use to be as productive and independent as possible in their daily activities.
Hearing Aid Glasses
Hearing impairments can already be disabling, but the hard-of-hearing population can struggle with other disabilities or comorbid conditions that make daily life even more difficult. For instance, an article published in BMC Ophthalmology found that vision problems like refractive errors, amblyopia, strabismus, and low vision are more common among children with hearing disabilities than their hearing peers.
In this case, new hearing devices have been developed as an all-in-one solution for vision correction and discreet audio amplification, an alternative to separate prescription eyewear and hearing aids. Using beamforming technology with low-latency response and background noise reduction, Nuance’s hearing glasses enable wearers to tune into real-time conversations with minimal delay. The eyewear is available in two lightweight frame styles, as well as prescription and Transitions lens options.
Mobile Captioning Services
In addition to hearing aids, deaf individuals utilize electronic devices for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), which helps them bridge spoken language with other modes of communication, such as sign language. However, despite these devices, activities like making calls via smartphones or tablets can be particularly frustrating.
In response to this communication barrier, InnoCaption was released as a mobile captioning service with automated speech recognition. By providing instant captions of real-time phone calls, data shows that the assistive technology has enhanced quality-of-life measures among deaf individuals, such as increased confidence and reduced frustration and anxiety during smartphone or tablet calls.
Haptic Shirts
Another common challenge for the hard-of-hearing population is enjoying live music. Fortunately, music organizations, such as Chicago’s Lyric Opera, are making their performances more accessible through garments that use real-time haptic sensations.
Specifically, the SoundShirt was developed by the wearable tech brand CuteCircuit to help audience members who are deaf or hard of hearing experience musical performances through vibrations that match the music. The lightweight clothing features 16 small motors that can receive live signals from microphones and activate vibrations in the back, shoulders, and forearms for a more immersive experience.
Virtual Reality Headsets
In the digital age, virtual reality (VR) headsets are increasingly being used for gaming, entertainment, and content creation. However, the immersive, computer-generated experience in VR environments can also be harnessed for enhanced sound quality and perception, which is particularly useful for individuals with hearing loss or impairments.
To illustrate, the Rochester Institute of Technology has developed a VR-focused wearable prototype that uses spatial haptics to convert a wide range of sounds into vibration patterns. This technology ultimately allows wearers who are deaf or hard of hearing to better immerse themselves in virtual environments while gaming or watching multimedia content.
These tools are essential to improving the lives of people living with disabilities like hearing loss. As technology advances, it might be easier than ever to boost comfort and quality of life for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. For more articles on tech and tech-inspired apparel, check out the rest of our website here at STORY SPARK.
