Home Safety Tips For People With Hearing Loss

If you experience hearing loss it can greatly impact your life and the way you live it. Yet it doesn’t need to be the be-all and end all and there are many things you can do that can improve your quality of life that aren’t too complicated. One of the most daunting things for people with hearing loss is figuring out how to navigate the home in an easy way.

Home is a safe space for an individual, so dealing with hearing loss and realizing you may not be as aware or as alert to threats like natural disasters or fires can create an uneasy feeling. In this post we explore some top home safety tips for people with hearing loss that should make it that bit easier.

Ensure There Is Soft Lighting and Not Too Many Visual Distractions

When you lose one of your senses, you become more in-tune and reliant on your others. For example, when you lose your hearing, one of the main things you will turn to is your sight which will become ever more important. Because of this you want to get rid of any unnecessary distractions that could make it harder to lip-read or focus on subtitles. This could include lots of artwork on the walls and harsh lights.

Focus on Larger, More Open Spaces

If a space is cramped and cluttered, not only will sound not travel well between rooms, but it can be hard to decipher what others are saying. Instead, try and focus on creating larger, more open-plan living spaces that make it easier and don’t absorb the sounds you need to focus on. It will make it easier to get someone’s attention through gestures and see others that are using things such as sign language as a way to communicate.

Choose Flooring That Absorbs Unnecessary Noise

If you have wooden or laminate floors in your home, they can often reflect sound and distract you from what you are trying to hear. This can be a real nuisance if you are trying to listen out for a sound or when someone is talking. Instead, opt for a flooring such as carpet. This will absorb unnecessary noises and small sounds that you don’t need to hear and make the room much easier for you to communicate with others in. Carpets won’t enable sounds to echo which can be confusing for someone that is experiencing hearing loss.

Install Acoustic Panels on the Walls and Ceilings

To go that one step further to muffle unnecessary noise in your house, it could be a good idea to install acoustic panels on the walls and ceilings. Higher ceilings can mean there is a lot of space for extra noise to travel, however adding acoustic tiles means they will absorb this unnecessary noise – and is a lot easier than finding a way to lower the ceilings down! By adding these panels to your walls as well, you can further cushion sound. They are often easy to install and just require being hung on the wall like a picture, but it’s important to look into how it needs to be put up before purchasing them.

Get Specialized Smoke Alarms & Carbon Monoxide Detectors

If you have hearing loss, you might miss if important alarms go off such as smoke alarms or carbon monoxide alarms. This can be a real safety hazard and mean that you don’t hear if you are in danger. To combat this, there are many specialized alarms on the market nowadays that will vibrate, send a message or light up should it detect smoke or a carbon monoxide leak.

Find Alarms That Vibrate and Light Up Instead of Just Making a Noise

As well as alarms for smoke and gas leaks, you can also get ones for things such as the oven that can help tell the person that the cooking is done. These will make a light and vibrate which offers a different way of alerting the person cooking that it’s time for the food to be removed from the oven or if a device has been left on by accident.

These are just a few home safety tips you can rely on for those that have hearing loss or are hard of hearing. These changes shouldn’t be too hard to implement but should make a big difference to the person in question’s life. To find out more about hearing aids and hearing devices, check out an audiologist at Gavin Audiology and Hearing Aids. Call us today at (914) 610-3440 or check out our website.