Apple iPhone tech helps reinvent the hearing aid - CNET

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David Grissam's Made for iPhone hearing aids have made it possible to continue in his job as a 911 dispatcher.

David Grissam

This is part of CNET's "Tech Enabled" series about the role technology plays in helping the disability community.

David Grissam was worried he'd have to quit his job.

Grissam had steadily been losing his hearing, which was a serious problem for the 911 dispatcher based in Norman, Oklahoma. It had gotten to the point where normal hearing aids didn't work anymore.

But then Grissam -- who has been legally deaf since the age of six -- got the Cochlear Baha 5 Sound Processor, a hearing device that's implanted in his skull. Connecting the Baha to his iPhone via Bluetooth lets the 44-year-old stream emergency calls directly to his ears, cutting out background noise and giving him crystal-clear sound.

"With me missing the audio coming in, I was really concerned I was going to miss one of my friends screaming for help because he was shot," Grissam said. But now, "I'm able to hear more than others in the room because of that direct link."

The Baha is one of a crop of hearing devices that follow Apple's "Made for iPhone" program, which employ Bluetooth and a special protocol technology from Apple to better connect to iPhones and iPads. That lets users stream audio directly to their ears, much as you would with regular wireless Bluetooth headphones such as Apple's AirPods. Users pair one of 44 compatible, audiologist-issued hearing aids with their iPhones, allowing them to take phone calls or listen to apps like YouTube or Pandora.

For people like Grissam, these hearing aids are the difference between adequately doing a job and not.

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