Navigating Videoconferencing With Hearing Loss

Videoconferencing apps such as Zoom, Skype, and Google Hangouts became the perfect lifelines to continuing business as usual during the coronavirus outbreak. Unfortunately for workers with hearing loss, while videoconferencing is an improvement over old-fashioned audio-only conference calls, it’s far from ideal.

Poor internet speed is the primary issue during videoconferencing because it causes frequent lapses in sound quality. That’s not all. The video often doesn’t synchronize with the audio, so many of the subtle aspects related to lipreading and facial micro-expressions are lost. While some people might not realize how much they rely on visual cues, everybody develops these skills naturally during the development of hearing loss.

Reading these cues can increase understanding of speech by up to 20 percent, even for someone who’s had no formal training in lipreading.

Several tips can help improve comprehension during virtual meetings if you are working from home:

• Before the videoconference, adjust your surroundings. Find a quiet room with good lighting.
• For those with teenagers in the house, get them to turn off their video games, live group chats, and movie-watching when you have a critical videoconference meeting to attend. Internet speed increases dramatically when they shut down.

If you are at the office, establish a few ground rules for all participants. Those include:

• Use the video option. Require everyone attending a virtual meeting to show their faces. It’s tempting to cover the camera or choose “audio only” on your computer or mobile device, but that makes it difficult for everyone else to follow along.
• Start with introductions. Unless everyone is already closely acquainted, this can be a good opportunity for participants to adjust the audio on their computer or mobile device, as well as their hearing aids, before the meeting gets going.
• Provide a written agenda. During audio misfires, it’ll help everyone stay on track. And have participants share their screens when discussing a document.
• Take turns speaking. Some videoconferencing apps make it difficult for more than one person to talk at a time. If that’s not the case, make a conscious effort to avoid interrupting others. Clicking the mute icon when you’re not speaking will help keep butt-ins to a minimum. It’ll also eliminate “background noise, which affects the ability to understand conversation.
• Record the meeting. This allows participants to revisit the conversation for clarity later.

CONCLUSION

If you still find yourself struggling, consider using earbuds or high-quality headphones that have noise-canceling features. They’ll make it easier to hear without cranking up the volume.

If you wear hearing aids, look into whether they can be paired to your computer or mobile device via Bluetooth to enhance sound quality. Using a headset with an external microphone will often result in better sound quality than using a computer-based microphone and speaker system.

Struggling to hear during virtual meetings? Schedule a FREE hearing evaluation with Audibel Kenya today!