A New Day, A New Year
January 1, 2024
A New Day, A New Year
Hello and welcome to a new year!
I launched hearability.space in 2023 with the goal of exploring how the ability to hear is compromised and how hearing-related activities and technologies can improve the experience. The exploration continues!
One of the surprises over the past few months was the strong reaction to my article, “The S-Word.” A few notables in the hearing advocacy space took exception to my point of view, and the ensuing kerfuffle led audiologist and podcast host Brian Taylor to ask me to talk about it on This Week in Hearing. Brian is a generous host, and I was honored to be asked and grateful for the opportunity.
A recent highlight of last year’s discoveries is soundly.com. (I’ve added the link on the /resources page.) Soundly launched in 2022 and appears to be a growing resource. Although there’s a lot out there about hearing devices — what’s good, what’s not, and sometimes why — what’s great about Soundly is that it actually allows you to compare features and price points of hearing aid brands and models.
One feature I was excited to explore, but did not find helpful is the collection of sound samples that theoretically allows you to compare what devices sound like. While I love the idea of being able to actually hear what various devices sound like, since the sound sources are so different, you can’t really assess what you are hearing. It would be like trying to compare microphones, but using one mic to record someone talking in a concrete bunker, and using another mic to record someone else talking in a padded booth. Does the result really tell you much about the capabilities of the microphones themselves?
Sound samples aside, there’s a lot of helpful information to take in. It has a terrific beginner’s guide to help anyone weighing the overwhelming options. Even though I have been navigating the hearing aid space for more than a couple decades, I find it incredibly helpful to have all this information so readily organized and available. Take your time and explore. I recommend planning on several short visits to the site to reap the benefits and avoid getting overwhelmed.
Another great discovery last year was the improvement of YouTube’s captioning tools. (Perhaps other video platforms as well? — Let me know!) Google’s own “Live Caption” is particularly erroneous for captioning lyrics, so if you care about lyrics being understood, someone has to actually input captions, or correct the auto-generated ones. The good news is the YouTube Studio tool for inputting or correcting captions is vastly improved. Perhaps you can relay the word to your favorite artist if their YouTube captions aren’t up to snuff.
Those are a few things that stood out for me in 2023. What stood out for you in the realm of hearing/listening last year? What are you curious about? What changes do you want to see?
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photo: Darleen Wilson