We had the problem of whether or not to recommend a digital
hearing aid recently so I visited the Connevans stand at an RNID
event last week and spoke to their consultant who has helped us in
the past. Firstly, I'd been led to believe that digital aids were
always far superior to analogue ones, which may be broadly true.
But he set up a couple for me which he linked to headphones (OK
the test may not be truly valid perhaps) and the effect of
background noise was still disturbing. His view agrees with Mick
Trott's, that an audiologist would have to be referred to for a proper
judgement to be made.
He also pointed out that aids costing £2000-3000 from private
suppliers really cost no more than about £500-£600 to supply
through the NHS and suggested we should contact the head of our
local hospital audiology department to set up a meeting to discuss
the problem.
As regards arguements for supplying them, The DRC's recent Draft
Code of Practice (Post 16) suggests that what they define as a
disability (in relation to "normal day-to-day activities") may respond
differently when subjected to the more concentrated versions of
these activities required in HE. Possibly explaining why so many
adults realise their dyslexic tendencies at university for the first
time because of the concentrated amounts of reading and writing.
Tutorials and lectures are information dense activities which the
student has to keep up with and would need maximum access to.
It is an argument I've succeeded with in the past, though again like
Mick, not always.
Dave Laycock
Head of CCPD
Chair of NADO
Computer Centre for People with Disabilities
University of Westminster
72 Great Portland Street
London W1N 5AL
tel. 020 7911-5161
fax. 020 7911-5162
WWW home page: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/ccpd/
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