The Federal Communication Commission will soon require all hearing aids to work together with smartphones and vice versa. This new rule by the FCC will require smartphones to meet the volume control benchmarks and soon will go into effect after a transition period.
The idea was meant for millions of Americans who have disabilities to access technology the same way everyone else does. This step by the FCC is part of years of collaborative research between the Hearing Aid Compatibility Task Force. An independent organization composed of wireless service providers, handset manufacturers, research institutions, and advocates for people with hearing loss.
They have been able to successfully achieve 100% hearing aid compatibility for all mobile handsets. This is years of hard work from the group to provide such a contribution for Americans with hearing disability.
“Members of the Task Force worked together over a period of years to reach a consensus on how the Commission could achieve its objective of requiring 100% of all mobile handsets to be hearing aid compatible,” said FCC.
This initiative will ensure that those with hearing disorders won’t have to worry about which phone is going to be compatible with their hearing aids.
“Under the new rules, after a transition period, Americans with hearing loss will no longer be limited in their choice of technologies, features, and prices available in the mobile handset marketplace,” the FCC wrote in a press release.
On the contrary, the Federal Communications Commission has also approved a mandate for hearing aid manufacturers that effectively prohibits the utilization of proprietary Bluetooth coupling standards in assistive devices. It requires both the phone and the hearing aid to be compatible with each other. The new rule even applies to the latest hearing aids AirPods Pro 2 from the tech giant Apple.
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