Which Skype phones are Hearing Aid Compatible?

Estimates suggest that in the UK alone there are around 9 million people with some kind of hearing impairment, and that up to 4 million of those people use hearing aids or have cochlear implants.

For these people, Skype can offer a really useful way of being able to communicate cheaply and easily through multiple channels, be it voice, text, video or some of the extra ways of communicating in Skype 3.

In addition, the Skype community has been pretty active in coming up with ways to specifically address the needs of deaf or hearing impaired users, with tools such as Skypetelex allowing users to see what is typed by the other user as it is typed (like a telex machine) rather than having to wait for him or her to press 'enter'.

One enterprising Skype user has even managed to make a super-powered hearing aid out of Skype by dialing a Skype account on his main PC (which he hooked up to a high-powered mic) from his Pocket PC via his Wifi network. In fact his system is so cunning even those with perfect hearing might benefit from it by placing the mic next to the TV so you can keep watching your favourite film in bed even once your other half has fallen asleep - genius!

However, any Skype-using hearing aid wearer will of course be eager to know which of the many Skype phones are Hearing Aid Compatible (HAC). Whilst I haven't as yet been able to get an exhaustive list, Skype user pigtailpat has been absolutely fearless in her quest to find out exactly which phones are and are not compatible and so I thought it would be good to post the fruits of her research.

So the initial roll of honor goes to:

Thomson GE 28300EE2 Cordless DECT Skype phone
Philips VoIP841 Cordless DECT Skype phone
All the Linksys 'CIT' phones, eg the recently announced CIT400, as well as the CIT200 and CIT300

The Thomson GE phone and the Linksys CIT phones are already available in the US, with the Philips phone to follow shortly.

I am absolutely certain there are more phones that *are* compatible, so will update this list as and when I get confirmation from Skype hardware manufacturers on the compatibility of their phones with hearing aids.

Technorati tags: Deafness, Hearing impairment, Hearing Aid Compatible, Linksys, CIT400, CIT300, CIT200, Philips VoIP841, GE DECT, Thomson, GE20300EE2, HAC, Skype, VoIP, Internet calling, Internet telephony

Comments

It's worth mentioning that what I have found to be the best bluetooth headset for both cell phones and Skype is the Skype Certified nXZEN headset. The voice quality is superb. But then what would one expect from a company (Gennum of Burlingon, ON Canada) that has been designing hearing aid components for the past few decades? They know something about using DSP technology, providing adequate audio bandwidth, noise cancellation and blocking out background noise. A full review is pending.

Woops, replace "noise cancellation" with "echo cancellation".

In the US, all cordless PSTN phones are required to be HAC. (FYI for those who care, HAC is provided by having a small speaker-linked coil in the handset which induces a current in the user's hearing aid, equipped with a matching "T-coil".)

Where did you get your information that the linksys cit200 is hearing aid compatible. I called linksys and they said it has never been tested with hearing aids and i cant find it mentioned anywhere in product specifications. Does hearing aid compatible mean that it will work with the t-coil?

A similary query, please:

can someone please tell me which headsets are HAC (it would have been helpful if this was set out on the "details" section for each headset but this does not seem to be the case).

sorry if there is an obvious answer to this, but i am new to skype and the headset would be for my mum, who is not even on skype yet but is planning to be soon.

many thanks