Video calls are becoming more and more common. Whether you work from home or use them to stay in touch with your friends and relatives from out of state, video calls can help you stay connected no matter where you are.
If you are one of the 30 million people in the United States who have hearing loss, video calls can pose some challenges due to things like lapses in sound quality and crosstalk. Thankfully, hearing aids can help.
Why Hearing Aids Improve Your Video Call Experience
Hearing loss makes it harder to understand and decipher speech. Hearing aids make it easier to understand what others are saying in any environment, and that includes video calls.
Many hearing aids come with Bluetooth® capabilities that allow you to sync them up with your other devices, meaning that you can stream audio from video calls directly into your hearing aids. This provides clearer, better sound quality customized to meet your individual hearing needs. It also makes it easier to take a call from anywhere, whether at home or enjoying the fresh air at Shoreline Park.
Additionally, hearing aids equipped with directional microphones are designed to amplify sounds coming in front of you (such as the voices on your computer or phone screen) while also suppressing distracting background noises.
Other Ways to Make Hearing Easier on Video Calls
In addition to using your hearing aids, there are other ways to make it easier to hear and follow along during video calls, particularly work meetings with multiple attendees:
- Start with introductions. If this is a meeting where not everyone knows each other well, starting off with introductions can give you the opportunity to adjust the audio and let you connect your device to your hearing aids, if possible.
- Ask that people keep their videos on while speaking. Making sure that the video option is fully activated, as opposed to audio, only allows people with hearing loss to read lips and better follow along with what is being said.
- Keep microphones on mute when not talking. Background noise can make it harder for everyone to hear, so ask that everyone keep their microphones on mute unless they are actively speaking.
- Take turns. Another thing that can make video calls hard to hear is when multiple people are speaking at once. Set an agenda beforehand and ask people to take turns when speaking.
- Record the meeting. If possible, record the meeting so that people can go back and review parts they may have missed and get clarity later.
To learn more about how hearing aids can help you, call Hearing Services of Santa Barbara today.
