How to Make a Telephone Hearing Aid Compatible

The FCC ruled that all phones, including cell and digital models, made after 2005 need to be equipped with the technology to make them hearing aid compatible. Phones that fall into this category employ the use of magnetic signals, which are representative of an audio signal. The magnetic signal, in turn, syncs up with hearing aids that have T-Coil capability. Finding a hearing aid compatible phone isn't difficult, but making an existing phone compatible is a little bit harder.

 Check Your Equipment


Step 1Confirm that your hearing aid has the technology to make it work with a hearing aid-compatible telephone. Only hearing aids that have an induction coil (or "telecoil") inside that allow you to switch from the normal microphone setting to a "T setting" are compatible with such phones.



Step 2Check to see whether the speaker in your telephone ear-piece is driven by a magnet, which would make it hearing aid compatible.



Step 3Check with cell phone providers to confirm whether a specific model is hearing aid compatible.



Purchase a Hearing Aid-Compatible Headset

Step 1Buy a hearing aid compatible headset to use if your current telephone isn't hearing aid compatible.



Step 2Choose a headset that goes over, not in or on your ear, to be comfortable with your hearing aid. Though many manufacturers produce headsets that adhere to FCC standards, only a company called Hearing Aid Telephone Interconnect Systems (HATIS) makes headsets specifically designed to attach to a hearing aid (see Resources below).



Step 3Purchase a headset adapter if you have an analog telephone.



Use a Hearing Aid-Compatible Headset

Step 1Install the headset adapter on your analog phone by removing your handset from your telephone and plugging the modular connector on the adapter into the handset jack on your telephone.



Step 2Plug your headset into the 2.5-mm headset jack on your phone or on the adapter.



Step 3Position the ear hook of the headset between your head and your hearing aid. Place the hook over the top of your ear to hold it in place.



Step 4Switch your hearing aid to the "T" setting.



Step 5Adjust the volume on the headset as necessary.