On Thursday, the FCC approved New regulations requiring all phone manufacturers to make their phones hearing aid compatible. As the number of Americans aged 65 and older is expected to increase balloon by almost 50 percent By 2050, the rules will ensure that people with hearing loss will not have to worry about which phones will work 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 phone market,” the FCC wrote in a news release.
Separately, the FCC also approved a requirement for hearing aid manufacturers that effectively bans proprietary Bluetooth pairing standards in assistive devices. Therefore, phones must be compatible with hearing aids and vice versa. The rule even applies to recently approved over-the-counter headphones, which now include the AirPods Pro 2.
Other changes include requiring that all new mobile phones sold in the US allow users to turn up the volume without introducing distortion. Additionally, the FCC now requires point-of-sale labels on cell phones to clarify hearing aid compatibility and whether the phones meet Bluetooth or telecoil pairing requirements.
The FCC worked with a consortium of cellular carriers, phone manufacturers and researchers to draft and adopt the rules. “Establishing a 100% hearing aid compatibility requirement for all mobile phones was made possible through the collaborative efforts of members of the Hearing Aid Compatibility Working Group, an independent organization of wireless service providers, phone manufacturers, research and advocates for people with hearing loss. ”wrote the Commission. “Members of the Task Force worked together for several years to reach consensus on how the Commission could achieve its goal of requiring 100% of all mobile phones to be hearing aid compatible.”
