Are Cochlear Implants Considered Assistive Technology?

A cochlear implant is a medical device similar to a hearing device but functions differently as it replaces the damaged hair cells of the ear (cochlea) with itself to provide signals to the brain. Basically, it is fitted to the Human Body.

You can purchase the latest hearing aids at a fair price through HearingSol, If you need more information or you have a query about Cochlear Implants or Assistive Technology, just give us a call on +91-9327901950. We are always here to help you.

Much like a hearing aid, a cochlear implant is a little electronic gadget that aides those with hearing loss. Likewise like a hearing aid, a cochlear implant can’t re-establish hearing loss. However, they can give a feeling of sound to individuals who significantly hard hearing or have a serious hearing loss. Thus the cochlear implant is not the same as the hearing aid.

Though the cochlear implant is not an assistive listening device, you may use these devices with or without a cochlear implant. It will enhance person listening experience and improves quality of life.

Assistive technology

Any piece of equipment, product, software system, algorithms which enhances the functional capabilities as well as the intellect of a person with disabilities is known to be Assistive technology. AT can be anything from oral knowledge to computer knowledge which just focuses on one main issue i.e overall improvement of a person with special needs and vice- versa.

Assistive Technology devices helpful for a normal person is also used to cater to the special needs of the disabled person by giving them assistance. It can vary from using a simple pencil to a wheelchair and many more.

  • It helps in revoking self-esteem as well as motivating a disabled person.
  • Need not to take any help from others as one become self-reliant using these technologies.
  • There is involvement in each task by the person as one feel confident using this technological advancement.
  • Cost is low and maintenance cost is minimal.
  • Operating the device are quite easy.

Cochlear Implant And Assistive Technology Devices

The cochlear implant is not an assistive device, its a device fitted inside our body that is an inner ear. Hearing assistive devices are those devices that improve your daily communication. Best examples of hearing assistive devices are as follows.

Bluetooth Hearing Aid– It is one of the best hearing devices that use wireless technology for better listening as well as for better communication.

AMPLIFIER– As the name suggests, this device improves the ability of a person to hear efficiently as it amplifies the sound to a much larger extent. The sole purpose of this amplifier is to hear the minimal sound and that too efficiently. In short, it gives superpower in hearing.

The above device is portable and hence is attachable.therefore, it is called “Assistive devices”.

The cochlear implant is a possibility for individuals who would not benefit from outside with hearing aids or speakers. The two kids and grown-ups can get a cochlear implant. A few people with significant hearing loss or deafness have the sensorineural hearing loss, which implies that there is harm to the little hair cells in the inner ear, in a section called the cochlea.

According to my point of view cochlear implant is not an assistive device. A cochlear implant is a medical device fitted in our body after surgery. But they can be used with or without a cochlear implant or hearing aids in theatres, schools, offices and in other places.

Example: Hip-joint implant used for a broken hip, use of stunt for better efficiency of the heart vice-versa.

Cochlear Implant device

Hearing-impaired people, and particularly hearing-aid and cochlear-implant users, often have difficulty communicating over the telephone. The intelligibility of telephone speech is considerably lower than the intelligibility of face-to-face speech. This is partly because of the lack of visual cues, limited telephone bandwidth, and background noise.

In addition, cell phones may cause interference with the hearing aid or cochlear implant. To address these problems that hearing-impaired people experience with telephones, this paper proposes a wireless phone adapter that can be used to route the audio signal directly to the hearing aid or cochlear implant processor.

The adapter is based on Bluetooth technology. The favorable features of this new wireless technology make the adapter superior to traditional assistive listening devices. A hardware prototype was built and software programs were written to implement the headset profile in the Bluetooth specification. Three cochlear implant users were tested with the proposed phone-adapter and reported good speech quality.

You can purchase the latest hearing aids at a fair price through HearingSol, If you need more information or you have a query about Cochlear Implants or Assistive Technology, just give us a call on +91-9327901950. We are always here to help you.

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