Make sure your college meets your hearing requirements.
There are a lot of things that parents and soon to be high school graduates have to consider and prepared for when college is quickly approaching. Besides many of the basic concerns, such as class schedules, books, and roommates, if your young adult uses hearing aids then there will be additional information and tasks to accomplish. Your child’s hearing instrument needs may have been one thing while in high school but chances are that they will find themselves discovering different needs when in their new environment. College is a time for new experiences and in addition to new digital hearing aid requirements will be new responsibilities. You and your teen need to make sure all their hearing device ducks are in a row so their transition into college can be a smooth as possible.
The first thing hearing aid users and parents need to be aware of is that it’s the responsibility of the student to seek out assistance through their schools disability center. The accommodations and support your son or daughter will receive for their hearing instruments will be completely based upon their ability to contact the center and provide the necessary documentation of their hearing loss and exact needs are. Very often at the beginning of the first class each semester, each professor will make an announcement regarding contacting the disability center. Once the disability center becomes aware that he or she uses a digital hearing aid and what accommodations need to be made, they will notify each of your child’s teachers to share the plan of action. The school will not seek you out to learn whether you require professors to use a microphone so sound can be directly delivered to your digital hearing aid. Something to be aware of is that your school is required to have visual fire alarms in dorms and around campus to provide safety measures for those with or without hearing devices and experiencing hearing loss.
Now that you are aware of what needs to occur with the school itself to get your child ready to experience all of the opportunities college has to offer, you can now see why it is so important to have all of their hearing instrument needs accessed and documented prior to moving them on campus. It’s very important to make sure they get a hearing test before going to school to make sure that their current hearing needs are going to be met and to make sure they are set for what their new environment will require. Something that many people don’t think to consider before going away to college is that they may need different hearing aids that will help them to hear well in large classrooms filled with hundreds of students. Whether you’re soon to be college student is going to a small college or a booming university, getting a hearing test and the hearing aids that are best for their new adventure is a must before sending them off.
Tags: digital hearing aids, hearing aid technology, hearing loss
