Consider these helpful hints to make phone calls easier and more enjoyable.
If hearing loss prevents you from using the phone to keep in touch with friends and family, there are several features and tools available to make your calls easier and more enjoyable. In this post, we’ve outlined the following tips for using a phone for hearing loss to help improve your communication with others:
- Use a phone with captions
- Amplify the volume of your caller’s voice
- Change your voicemail greeting
Keep reading to learn more about using a phone for hearing loss to connect with important people in your life.
Use a phone with captions
One sure-fire way to improve calls with others is to use a phone for hearing loss that provides written captions of everything your caller says. Captioned telephones are specifically designed for people with hearing loss to help you maintain connections with others. If you can’t hear what your caller said, simply read the captions! You can even get captions of voicemails or answering machine messages. Available on a large color display screen, written captions on all CapTel models are easy to read and adjustable, so that you can customize the font size and color to your preferences. Learn more about how captioned phones for hearing loss work here.
Amplify the volume of your caller’s voice
A phone for hearing loss that features sound amplification is another way to help improve your communication over the telephone. If you’ve ever been on a call and wished you could turn the volume up louder than your phone allows, look for an amplifying feature that often lets you set the volume higher than a traditional telephone. But more than just amplification, captioned phones allow you to adjust for various sound frequencies to help with your hearing loss. By adjusting the tone setting, you can find the sound quality level that works best for your hearing loss. Some captioned telephones also come with additional voice amplification along with captions.
Did you know that your telephone isn’t the only device that can amplify sound? There are many other types of personal sound amplification products (PSAPs) that can make it easier to hear sounds in virtually any environment.
Change your voicemail greeting
Whether you’re using captions or sound amplification on your phone for hearing loss, it may be beneficial to provide instructions to missed callers about how you’d like them to leave you a message. You can set up a voicemail or answering machine greeting that says “Hello, you’ve reached (your name). I can’t answer the phone right now. Please leave a message and speak slowly and clearly, and repeat your phone number twice.” You may find that friends and family will happily oblige if it makes it easier for you to read or hear what they said.
These tips for using a phone for hearing loss can help improve your communication with others and lend more confidence when making and receiving calls.
To learn more about whether a phone for hearing loss is right for you, check out our quick Q&A. You can also begin exploring the four types of hearing loss telephones with captions, as well as the features to look for to personalize your phone to your preferences.
