A home-made pendant timer-alert

There are all sorts of situations where one wants to keep track of time and be alerted when the time is up. The obvious example is in cookery, but there are numerous others, all of which call for a timer-alert of some sort. However, for deaf people, it is no easy matter to find one that is suitable: The alerts on watches tend to be too quiet; regular kitchen timers are awkward to carry around and can't be heard at a distance and the vibration alerts on phones are fiddly to set up.

Fortunately there is a fashion at the moment for making digital kitchen timer fridge magnets in different coloured shiny plastic cases, shaped like medallions. Fortunately, too, these continue to ring until their stop button is pressed, rather than just giving a single ping. My solution was to buy one in a colour I like, drill two holes in it and thread a cord through. I wear it as a pendant. Being close to the body, it can readily be heard.

The timer pendant doubles as a useful strategy when cooking for guests. So often one has to leave the group because the meal needs attention, and yet it feels rude to do so while they are talking animatedly about something close to their hearts. The surreptitious ring from the pendant indicates that there is a good reason for making one's exit and so gets round the need to interrupt with explanations or excuses. This strategy is so useful that a number of my hearing friends now also use it, and even their menfolk can be seen wearing the pendant around the house to help them keep track of time.

Triple Tell Timer - Review for people who are deaf

This widely available timer looked just what I, with my considerable hearing loss, needed - a timer that would sound, flash and vibrate at the end of a set time. I was wrong, and I have put this review here so that other deaf people don't waste their money.

To be fair, the Triple Tell Timer is not sold specifically for deaf people, although I am puzzled at what use the manufacturers imagine that the triple alert would be for anyone with normal hearing.

• It is publicised as suitable for clipping onto a belt. On the few occasions when I - as woman - wear a belt, the vibration does not penetrate through it and the timer is too far away from my ears for me to hear it. If I clip the timer onto my clothes, not only does it cause unsightly rucks, the vibration still does not penetrate.
• I tried hanging it around my neck as a pendant, but the weighting is such that it hangs awkwardly at an angle so the vibration still cannot be felt.
• It works relatively well on a hard surface but I need to be able to move around to answer a door etc and not to have to remember to carry it with me. Even put beside me on the arm of a chair, I cannot hear it, particularly against any background noise such as a TV.
• The flash is too weak to catch attention in daylight.

More generally, having to click 50 times for example, to set a 50 minute time is hardly best practice.

What hard-of-hearing people need is a timer that sounds a tune, not a buzz or beep so that it can be distinguished from background noise; it needs to get louder and louder until it turns off; ideally it also needs a way of making comfortable and continuous contact with the skin so that the vibration can be readily felt as one moves around, without having to remember to pick it up. Obviously a small number keyboard would be preferable to having to press a key say, 50 times to set a 50 minute time. I have told this to the Royal National Institute for the Deaf who sold me the Triple Tell Timer, so let's see if they take any notice.