Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs)

HearCare Rhode Island offers assistive listening devices for patients who need further amplification in certain environments. Though hearing aids do wonders for people who are hard of hearing, some situations may be a little more challenging than others. Even with a hearing aid, spaces with poor acoustics, particularly busy or crowded businesses, large auditoriums and movie theaters, and buzzing transportation hubs might be obstacles to clear channels of sound amplification for people who wear hearing aids. In these instances, assistive listening devices (ALD) provide extra support. ALDs increase the performance of hearing aids by distilling the sounds people prefer to hear from the noisy environment they may find themselves.

Infrared TV listening devices use light-based technology, while FM TV listening devices use radio broadcast technology to deliver clear sounds to your ears. Infrared systems are more private, as they do not pass through walls and cannot be picked up by other radio signals, while FM TV listening devices are more commonly used in public spaces. Both devices can be attached to the TV and come with components for you to wear on your body or to place near you to amplify sound.

Captioned phones from CaptionCall and CapTel are offered free to the public with the necessary certification paperwork from our office. When you receive a phone call, these phones provide you with real-time captions on a screen as you speak to the person on the other end. Some captioned phones have the capability of saving previous conversations, as well as phone numbers.

We offer vibrating alarm clocks as well as alerting devices for telephone ring, doorbell and smoke alarms. Read more below about the specific products we have at our practice.