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The purpose of this paper is to highlight the level of hearing loss in the population and describe the joint health and social care response in Hartlepool to the needs of this group of people.

The approach included a review of the literature, the application of national prevalence tables to local population estimates, and a review of the adequacy of current service provision available to people with a hearing loss.

More than 14,700 people out of a total population of 91,000 living in Hartlepool are estimated to have some degree of hearing loss. This compares with only 1,046 people registered with the adult social care team although 13,800 people were found to be registered with the local audiology department. The review found that a broad range of services was already in place across health and social care although some areas were identified for service improvement which are currently being addressed.

Drawing attention to the needs of a section of the community that is virtually invisible, this review served to highlight the scale of hearing loss prevalence in the population, to estimate the number of people with hearing loss in a local population using data that has been available for almost two decades (although not widely adopted), and demonstrates a unique cross‐sectoral approach to assessing and responding to the needs of people who have a loss of hearing.

The purpose of this paper is to explore audiologists, views and experiences of working with older adults with dementia.

An online survey was distributed to audiologists working in the UK NHS and private sector via their professional organisations. A total of 312 audiologists took part in the study. The survey collected both quantitative and qualitative data. Basic descriptive statistics summarised the quantitative responses. The qualitative data were analysed using conventional thematic approaches.

The quantitative data demonstrated that the vast majority of audiologists had treated someone with dementia (96 per cent). Despite this, 65 per cent of respondents did not feel adequately supported to help this service user population. Four overarching themes were used to explain the qualitative data: integrated and individualised care; formal (including training) vs experiential knowledge; the interaction between dementia and hearing and using the technology.

The self-selecting nature of the sample is a limitation which needs to be taken into account when considering the transferability and implications of the findings.

Given the anticipated increase in rates of dementia within the population and the potential for hearing impairment to exacerbate the symptoms; this study highlights the unique role audiologists have. The need for more training and development for this professional group is also identified.

This is one of the first papers to explore audiologists, views and experiences of working with people with dementia. As such, it highlights some interesting areas worthy of further research using both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Hearing aid (HA) using is an option for enhancing the sound transmission. It effectively improves hearing ability during communication. In Thailand, two-third of hearing impaired persons were elders, while the utilization of an HA was low. This study aims to explore how the decision was made on the use of HA among the hearing impaired elderly.

Mixed-methods sequential explanatory design was used by starting with a retrospective study to identify the prevalence of HA use and influencing factors including demographic and clinical data. Total, 199 elders with moderate to severe hearing impairment were enrolled. Qualitative data collection for thematic analysis was conducted by interviewing 28 participants to reveal elders’ subjective reasoning.

It was found that 25.63% of elders used an HA, whereas age, types of health insurance and disability registration were significant influencing factors. Six themes of subjective reasoning emerged including social activities, disability perspective, social support, medical and personnel, rights and accessibility and benefit of HA, which determined the elders’ decisions on HA use.

This study broadened insights of the elders’ decision process on HA use, which was mutually made by both health-care professional and care recipients. The elders themselves would make the final decision. Not only objective indications but also subjective reasoning of users played significant roles on HA acquisition. To enhance HA use among hearing impaired elders, patient engagement in decision-making was crucial while hearing counselling and elimination of reimbursement barriers became essential.

Hearing impaired users often find it difficult to listen to voice over television, computer or public announcement systems due to background noise, music or poor sound quality. This paper presents a hearing impairment simulator that can help digital content developers to understand the auditory perception of hearing impaired users. Existing hearing impairment simulations often fail to publish results on validation or running the system on stored files. The present work describes validation result on a hearing impairment simulator and link to download the system that can simulate any sound stored as a wav file.

This work presents a simulator with a downloadable link to the software and results on a couple of user trials involving users with varying degrees of hearing impairment validating the system. The simulator also simulates frequency smearing which is not available in most online hearing impairment simulators. The simulator is part of a bigger project which also involves simulating visual, cognitive and motor impairment.

The result shows the present implementation can accurately simulate hearing perception for spoken voice. It also demonstrates that both frequency attenuation based on audiogram response and smearing are needed for accurate simulation as random frequency attenuation does not distort the sound well enough to be inaudible.

It should be noted that this simulation is not accurate enough to be used for medical purpose, rather aims to be an engineering tool to simulate approximately correct auditory perception of hearing impaired people. However, like other researches on user modelling and simulation in HCI, this simulator aims to enhance the design space where designers can optimize volume and quality of sound output and if necessary of background music or noise.

This paper presents a hearing impairment simulator that can help digital content developers to judge the sound quality of their content for hard of hearing users.

Existing literature on hearing impairment simulators either presents a software without detailed result on validation or focuses on detailed theoretical results on psychology without any easy deployable software. Most existing software also does not allow running simulation on stored file which limits their purpose. This work presents a simulator with a downloadable link to the software and results on a couple of user trials involving users with varying degrees of hearing impairment validating the system. The simulator also simulates frequency smearing which is not available in most online hearing impairment simulators.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID), a major UK third sector organisation, on public sector provision. The case examined is that of auditory services (in effect the nature of assessment and provision of hearing aids in England).

The approach is that of a case study of the actions and approach of the RNID and their engagement with the public sector, in particular with the UK National Health Service.

The case study shows the very considerable impact, which the RNID had in effecting a dramatic improvement in the quality of the service offered through the move to digital hearing aids and through the improvement of the audiology services themselves. The RNID, through using its expertise, also succeeded in achieving a huge reduction in the unit cost of digital hearing aids. A value chain approach is utilised to examine the effect of the RNID.

The case study furnishes an account of impact on a national level in a key service. It shows how a third sector organisation can use expertise to leverage impact using public sector resources. It shows that even with very large government purchases a key factor is specific knowledge, which if possessed by a third sector organisations, can be used to major effect.

The case study demonstrates impact and the effective operation of a cross‐sectoral partnership. One of the authors (Lamb) is closely involved from the organisational perspective.

A global pandemic, non-occupational noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is a completely preventable public health problem, which receives limited air time. This study has dual purposes: to contribute to scholarly literature that puts non-occupational NIHL on the global priority map and to effect change in the City of Vancouver's policies toward noise.

Experts in public health and hearing health were contacted in addition to a scoping literature search on PubMed. Information pertaining to both developed and developing countries was obtained, and comparison was made to Canada where possible. The authors met with elected officials at the City of Vancouver to inform them of the win–win aspects of policies that promoted better hearing.

Non-occupational NIHL is an underappreciated issue in Canada and many other countries, as seen by the lack of epidemiological data and public health initiatives. Other countries, such as Australia, have more robust research and public health programs, but most of the world lags behind. Better hearing health is possible through targeted campaigns addressing root causes of non-occupational, recreational noise – positive associations with loud noise. By redefining social norms so that soft to moderate sounds are associated with positive values and loud sounds are negatively attributed, the societies will prevent leisure NIHL. The authors recommend widespread national all-age campaigns that benefit from successful public health campaigns of the past, such as smoking cessation, safety belts and others. Soft Sounds are Healthy (SSH) is a suggested name for a campaign that would take many years, ample resources and sophisticated understanding of behavior change to be effective.

A gap exists in the collection of non-occupational NIHL data. Creating indicators and regularly collecting data is a high priority for most nations. Beyond data collection, prevention of non-occupational NIHL ought to be a high priority. Studies in each region would propel understanding, partly to discern the cultural factors that would predispose the general population to change favorable attitudes toward loud sounds to associations of moderate sounds with positivity. Evaluations of these campaigns would then follow.

Everyday life for many people around the world, particularly in cities, is loud. Traffic, construction, loudspeakers, music and other loud sounds abound. Many people have adapted to these loud soundscapes, and others suffer from the lack of peace and quiet. Changing cultural attitudes toward loud sound will improve human and animal health, lessen the burden on healthcare systems and positively impact the economy.

Industries that create loud technologies and machinery ought to be required to find ways to soften noise. Regulatory mechanisms that are enforced by law and fines ought to be in place. When governments take up the banner of hearing health, they will help to set a new tone toward loud sounds as undesirable, and this will partially address the root causes of the problem of non-occupational NIHL.

Very little public health literature addresses NIHL. It is a relatively ignored health problem. This project aims to spurn public health campaigns, offering our own infographic with a possible title of Soft Sounds are Healthy (SSH) or Soft Sounds are Sexy (SSS). The study also aimed to influence city officials in the authors’ home, Vancouver, and they were able to do this.

Congenital hearing disabilities among children are associated with lifetime discrepancies in the attainment of speech, poor academic-performance, socio-individual isolation and emotional-maladjustments. The present study aims to combine evidence from randomized, controlled trials to assess the accuracy of hearing-screening procedures and relative diagnostic-tests concomitant with partial/permanent hearing loss (HL) among neonatal and under-five children.

The steps in this process were conducted according to the PRISMA (Preferred-Reporting-Items-for-Systematic-reviews-and-Meta-Analysis) guidelines. The PubMed, ProQuest, Science-Direct, Cochrane-Library and secondary reference databases were searched. Analyses were carried out by using fixed/random-effects-models for calculating the summary estimates on hearing-screening and test-procedure. Meta-regression-analysis is performed to explore the influence of confounders on the net-pooled effect.

A total of 1,656 articles were identified, and 1,575 were excluded as they were not relevant to the purpose of the study. Further, out of 81 studies, 67 were excluded with reasons and 14 were included in the final analysis. Three independent reviewers have assessed the titles/abstracts for their potential relevance. The results from meta-analysis indicate that hearing-screening was significantly higher in the intervention group (n 8,102; OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.34, 0.79; p < 0.00001), as depicted via forest plot. Meta-regression analysis indicates a positive relationship between the age and effect size (regression-coefficient 0.638, 95% CI 0.005, 0.731; p < 0.05).

The evidence from the present study can be used as reference for identifying the associated risk indicators, improved hearing-screening and reduction of hearing disability among under-five children.

The results of this review will be used for implementation of a new-born hearing screening, diagnostic accuracy and understanding the risk indicators for HL among under-five children in the South-Asian region. The evidence will be helpful for strategic directions for improved hearing screening and reduction of hearing disability among under-five children.

By understanding the underlying dynamics of hearing-screening procedures, hearing-impairments can be identified at an early stage and required treatment can be provided to the children.

The findings of this study indicate that early detection, screening and diagnosis of the HL among the children, especially among the infants and new-born (0–2 years of age), will be of utmost importance in reducing the prevalence of HL, especially among the South-Asian region. This study can be used as a reference for other future studies in the area of hearing-screening, diagnostic accuracy and associated risk indicators among children.

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate how effectively the library meets the research needs of deaf and hard of hearing students. Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted by an anonymous survey investigating students' use, awareness and comfort level with the library and its resources. The survey was followed up with a small focus group comprised of volunteer deaf and hard of hearing students in the Deaf Studies and Deaf Education program at Lamar University. Findings – A variety of communication options should be available for deaf and hard of hearing patrons to contact librarians for assistance. Librarians need to establish clear and effective lines of communication to ensure these patrons are aware of library services relevant to their needs. Making the effort to establish communication with deaf and hard of hearing patrons encourages their use of the library by demonstrating that the library is interested in serving their needs. Research limitations/implications – This is a review of the literature concerning collaboration and cannot contain every example of library and writing center collaboration. Practical implications – Librarians can use the findings in this article to create a more welcoming environment for their deaf and hard of hearing patrons. Originality/value – There is a scarcity in the library literature of studies examining the research needs of deaf and hard of hearing patrons. This article is of value to librarians looking for ways to better meet these patrons' research needs.

Beck discusses the need to improve library and information services for the deaf community. The technological support available to libraries to serve the deaf is identified and described. Turnkey systems are found to be lacking in applications devoted to those who cannot hear or who are hard of hearing. Other technologies, like captioned videos, TDDs, and assistive listening systems, are examined for levels of service and excellence as well as cost. Examples of technology in transition and for the future are offered, along with experiments on speech and sound. These include inner ear implants, the “data glove” experiments, and tactile translators. Technological conflicts that may arise due to one person having multiple disabilities are presented with a discussion on the prevention of dangerous or difficult situations. Possible difficulties and ways to handle opposing technologies are examined briefly. Appropriate sections of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Guidelines are grouped with the technologies that aid compliance. Additional laws are mentioned where their inclusion is appropriate. Suggested guidelines for serving the deaf/disabled community are offered for librarians working in all library types.