Auditory Accommodation

Helping individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing to maximize the quality of their lives.

What is an Auditory Accommodation?

Auditory Accommodation is the use of a device to aid or overcome an individual’s hearing impairment. There are many devices available to enhance an individual ability to perform job tasks or activities of daily living.

What to expect form an evaluation?

During the evaluation the specialist will discuss the areas that the individual is having difficult with. The specialist will then match devices with the client’s needs.

Types of devices that are beneficial to individuals with hearing impairments include such things as TTY’s, amplified telephones, assistive listening devices, and strobe smoke alarms.

What causes hearing loss or deafness?

There are two types of hearing loss, conductive and sensorineural, depending on which part of the ear is affected. Conductive hearing loss is caused by anything that blocks the conduction of sound from the outer through to the inner ear. Some of the causes include; middle ear infections, collection of fluid in the middle ear, blockage of the outer ear, damage to the eardrum by infection or trauma, otoscleroris, and rarely, rheumatoid arthritis.

The other type of hearing loss is called ‘sensorineural’ and refers to damage to the pathway for sound impulses from the hair cells of the inner ear to the auditory nerve and the brain. Some of the causes include, age-related hearing loss, acoustic trauma such as a loud noise, viral infections of the inner ear, Meniere’s disease, certain drugs, a benign non-cancerous tumor of the auditory nerve, viral infections of the auditory nerve, meningitis, encephalitis, multiple sclerosis, brain tumors and strokes.