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Radio and TV: Problems and strategies for the deaf and hard-of hearingAs technology has advanced regular television and radio have become increasingly problematic for people with hearing problems. There are three reasons. One reason is that so much is in stereo with all sorts of sound effects. Wonderful as these must be for people with normal hearing who can separate out the speech, problems with identifying the direction of sound result in all the sound blurring together so that speech becomes unintelligible.
A second problem is the apparent belief by those who put on the programmes that sound effects have to be loud to be enjoyed whereas whispered speech carries dramatic effect. As a result, people with sensitivity to sound sit with one finger on the volume control and the other on the mute button. I have actually worn out three controllers, while the original television was still working, just because of my excessive use of the volume control.
A third reason is that with so many channels now available, information is packed so much more tightly into what is broadcast that some necessarily has to be discarded. Deaf people's ears miss enough "sound detail" anyway without the broadcasters removing more.
So I do not have any really successful strategies for listening to the radio and television, and what I do is so obvious that all deaf people probably do it anyway.
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Disclaimer: The information on this site is for a lay audience and I cannot be responsible for errors or omissions. The views, strategies, advice and suggestions etc are based on my personal experience and are not necessarily appropriate for anyone else although they should, hopefully, stimulate individuals to develop their own strategies.
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version date: 26 March, 2008