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Text Messaging Device For the Hearing Impaired?
spaceball1 asks: "I was in the army and served in Iraq — one of the side effects being some permanent hearing loss. I now wear hearing aids all of the time, in both ears. Talking on a cell phone has become nearly impossible. I have considered moving to a device more geared towards text messaging, but they are all very expensive and have a lot of the features that I will never use. Are there any devices out there that are geared only towards simple text messaging? The No-Frills-Cell-Phone concept has been largely ignored in the US; does a No-Frills-Text-Messaging device exist?"
The college that I currently go to is one of about 4 in the United States that has American Sign Language as a major. Since sign is the second language on the campus, this guarantees that deaf students will be more likely to come here. Several of my friends here are deaf, including several teacher. From what I can tell, many of them will use the Sidekicks for communication, and one of the teachers also uses a blackberry. I'm assuming that you can go to the phone company, and they will more than likely have text plans for those who are deaf.
I have a congenital 50dB hearing deficit in both ears. I lived with crappy analog devices for over 20 years. If you can afford it (and I know they're expensive) go digital.
Up until I bought my latest set of hearing aids I had a lot of difficulty with phones. I was able to get a basic pair of digital In The Canal (ITC) hearing aids last time, and it has made a world of difference. The digital processing makes for much better sound quality and feedback is greatly diminished. The smaller ITC form factor also helps in diminishing feedback.
Now I can use phones (even cell phones) without a problem. I can even wear headphones!