Telecoil/HAC compatible telephones/cellphones

Hearing Aids
1

So I have been trying to get my Duo/Easy Phone feature to work on my Naida S IX CRTs with my office phone, my home phone and my cellphones. The audi demo’d the feature with her office phone while I was getting fitted.

The automatic one was setup just for mic (not telecoil also so it would not be triggered by clamp on headphones for listening to music) and with the easy phone beeps enabled so i would know when it kicked in and when the phone got moved out of range - which seemed like 3 to 4 feet with the audi’s office phone but it had a magnet stuck on it which may amplify the effect.

A manual program was setup fro both telecoil and mic.

None of my phones trigger the telecoil and I do not hear sound out both the HAs (one is supposed to feed the sound from the phone to the opposite HA).

Another person in my office had sadi that our Avaya VOIP phones did not work with hearing aids. I have ATT DECT 6.0 wireless phones at home and they do not trigger the duophone either.

My audi said usually this feature does not work with cellphones including iPhone and Android unless they have a high M or T rating. So I went to Phonescoop.com to check ou t my cell phones. PhoneScoop says my EVO is M4 and T4 rated which is said to be very telecoil compatible. For Thunderbolt it just says it’s HAC compatible.

I went into call settings and checked the block for hearing aids. The accessibility setting is grayed out. It says no applications for this are loaded. I could not find any application in the Market that enable telecoil.

I found an ATT DECT 6.0 wireless system that says it’s hearing aid compatible but not exactly how it’s compatible.

Anyone familiar with these or a similar wireless system that is telecoil compatible?

My current ATT DECT 6.0 system will route calls to a Bluetooth phone. When I get my ComPilot (which was out of stock) I am hoping to be able to route calls to it which would then route it to my HAs. (I think - I don’t know how I will tell it to answer the phone.)

I guess for a telephone to be compatible it has to leak magnetic induction.

For my office phone can I just replace the handset with one that leaks? If this will work, where does one find such a handset set?

2

Most speakers use magnetic coils to move the diaphragm - allough some may use a ceramic one. I know some speakers are marketed as shielded for close use around computers or other electronic equipment but they are usually more money so I doubt manufacturers of cheap wireless or cellphones spend more to sheild their speaker magnets.

Besides my HTC EVO is supposed to have the ighest rating for hearing aid compatibility, so I must e doing something wrong as it worked in the audi’s office.

Anyway does any one know of a make and model cordless/wireless phone system that is telecoil compatible?

Or does anyone know where to get a handset that works with a telecoil to replace the one on a desk/trimline phone?

3

TambourineMan,
My sisters Phonaks telecoil only works when she manually activates it, I don’t know if you have to do it but it might be worth a try.

4

I had to put a small nyeodemium magnet in both my home phones and my cell phone in order to trigger the auto tcoil/telephone mode. I was able to open the case on my phones and find a place for a 4mm round magnet close to the speaker. It took a little work with the Dremel tool to get a good fit.
There are stick on versions of the magnet if you aren’t savvy at taking things apart and modifying them.
The voice coil magnets in just about all modern phones are not strong enough to trigger the auto function in the HA.
My HA guy gave me some small and extremely thin stick on magnets that work great. I don’t know, however, what his source for these is.
Hearing Aid Compatible means that the phone will provide ample magnetic induction of the audio to operate the tcoil. It does not mean that it contains a magnet strong enough to trigger the auto mode.
HAs that have the auto tcoil/telephone function have an additional sensor (in addition to the tcoil) that detects a constant magnetic field.

5

THANKS!

The audi had a stick on magnet on her desk phone.

I tried a refrigerator magnet but that did not seem to trigger the telecoil.

Now I will try some more powerful magnets.