Assistive Listening Devices & Hearing Assistive Technology Flashcards

A Bluetooth-enabled hearing aid connects to smartphones primarily using which Bluetooth protocol optimized for audio streaming to hearing aids?

Answer: Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) / LE Audio

Modern hearing aids use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and the newer LE Audio standard to stream audio efficiently with minimal battery drain.

When recommending a hearing loop system for a patient's home television viewing, the hearing instrument specialist should verify that the patient's hearing aids have which feature enabled?

Answer: Telecoil (T-coil)

A hearing loop system transmits via electromagnetic induction that is only detected by the telecoil (T-coil) in hearing aids; this feature must be present and activated.

Which type of closed captioning service provides real-time captions transcribed by a trained stenographer for live events?

Answer: CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation)

CART uses trained stenographers to produce real-time verbatim captions during live events, achieving higher accuracy than automated ASR alone.

A remote microphone (RM) accessory used with hearing aids primarily improves which aspect of hearing in noisy environments?

Answer: Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)

Remote microphones transmit the speaker's voice directly to the hearing aids, dramatically improving the signal-to-noise ratio by placing the microphone close to the sound source.

An infrared assistive listening system is MOST suitable for which environment?

Answer: Indoor meeting rooms requiring confidentiality

Infrared signals cannot pass through walls, making infrared systems ideal for confidential settings such as courtrooms and boardrooms where signal security is important.

Which document, published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), provides technical specifications and performance standards for hearing assistive technology systems in the U.S.?

Answer: ANSI/TIA-1083

ANSI/TIA-1083 provides technical performance specifications for hearing aid-compatible handsets and related assistive listening devices used in the U.S.

A patient reports that their FM receiver has significant static and dropout during use. Which troubleshooting step should be performed FIRST?

Answer: Verify that the transmitter and receiver are on the same frequency channel

Static and dropout in FM systems are most commonly caused by a channel mismatch between the transmitter and receiver; verifying channel synchronization is the first and simplest step.