Hi Ryan

Rigging up either a soundbar or good quality earbuds or headphones to the employee's computer, either on bluetooth or hard wired should help immensely - I have similar problems myself and yer average computer loudspeaker simply isn't adequate for me.

Most modern hearing aids can be made to stream bluetooth sound too, but if an audiologist considers no HA necessary, that's maybe not applicable - except that a second opinion from another audiologtist following further specific speech-recognition tests might be worth a try. A professional audiologist too might be able to provide further and better general advice than mine

In reply to David:

Thanks David, this is really helpful especially as it comes from lived experience.
I've suggested bluetooth ear buds with a noise canceling feature but that's currently in the tech approval bureaucrats. Is there anything else you find helpful, we could try in the interim?

The employee has gone to the GP for a referal to ENT, they'd been to a specsavers audiologist for the initial test. So we will see what results come from that.

In reply to Ryan:

PS Ryan

Should have mentioned that such as these are similar to earbuds but have a speech intelligibility programme too and although designed for TV listening should connect via 3,5mm jack / sound cable to computer sound output.
www.ebay.co.uk/.../364915272280

Also, in the course of experimenting with such things I have accumulated two pairs of 'ordinary' but hifi Sennheiser wireless earbuds that I don't use currently (I use the TV Clear instead) but if it's any potential use to try one of them out for this purpose, happy to try finding one to lend to a colleague if someone will reimburse the postage costs involved - text me on 07748332421 with your direct email and maybe we can arrange something

In reply to Ryan:

My hearing is no longer good to catch everything on TV or on video. I just use an ordinary cheap pair of headphones. I wouldn't particularly care less what some 'tech approval', was. Will they dismiss me or discipline me? I don't think that anything like an earphone plugged into the audio jack plug is going to have any effect on anything.

The world of speech intelligibility is fascinating and super complex. We all naturally loose high frequencies as we age, and the general wear and tear does impact our ability to focus on voices etc.

However, there are a couple of things which can be tried at zero cost with Teams. Teams allows for several noise reduction levels, try switching between off and high to see if that makes any difference. There is also a ‘high fidelity’ mode, normally this is turned off by default. These may or may not make any difference but can be easily tested for free.

Ambient noise/room acoustics can make a significant difference as can using the computer speakers or headphones/external speakers. Most people will have some headphones at home which can be tried to see if there is any difference. Computer speakers tend to be awful and easily distorted. Cheap headphones will generally be better and fancy headphones will be vastly superior but try cheap to see if it improves things.

I use open backed headphones with an external microphone on Teams but if there is a lot of noise from lawnmowers etc I have some closed back headphones and can adjust how much of my voice is mixed into the headphones.

I also use an app called Krisp AI which reduces background noise on the microphone and speakers. There is a free version which allows for a certain number of minutes per day.

Reducing reverberation and background noise from other users can lead to a fundamental improvement to speech intelligibility but is a little harder to control.

The control of noise and acoustics at work is rarely given much thought but it does not take a lot to significantly reduce the ability of people to fully understand what is being said. This can reduce productivity, increase errors and decrease engagement.

As an aside, most school classrooms are perfectly designed to help the students at the front of the class and give very poor quality intelligibility for the students at the back of the classroom.

Hello Ryan,

I have quite significant hearing loss which cannot be helped by hearing aids, and found the era of Teams meetings in Covid an absolute nightmare! The most helpful things were to have people not talk over each other, and to not cover their mouth / face or look away from the camera when they were talking, as I rely on lip-reading so much.
Often people with gradual hearing loss start to lip-read more and more without realising it, and so being able to see people's faces is vital.
Hope that helps.

Hi Ryan,

I'm actually a hearing aid wearer, and like your colleague struggled in meetings with not bring able to catch things. I was told by a study skill tutor (because I also study on the side) about the 'Access to Work' Scheme. This scheme covers a lot, and your team member can have a chat with one of the team there and they'll be able to advise on some kit that might help them out. Best bit it that initially the company will pay but this gets refunded, though I'm not sure on that process.

As a couple of other people mentioned, being in rooms with background noise can be irritating, so trying to find somewhere that is quieter also helps.

I'm sorry they are having a rough time - hopefully the ENT referral happens!

In reply to Rebekah:

Listening clearly to meeting participants eg round a table is a somewhat different situation. Typical equipment for this is the Phonak Roger system - eg Roger On or Roger Select or Roger Table Mic II (Google them), but this equipment tends to be very very expensive and require personal hearing aid modifications in order to work. But it can be very effective indeed compared with struggling with standard hearing aids, and Access to Work *may*  help with provision both of this and equipment better to hear online meetings, depending on the particular circumstances - eg the level of disability / hearing impairment involved 

In reply to David:

Hi David, this is incredibly kind of you, thank you. I've suggested the TV clear as a suggestion, I'll see what the procurement people come back with.

In reply to Ryan:

Hope you manage to find something that works, Ryan!

In reply to Steven :

Completely forgot to mention OBS Studio. This is designed for streaming and allows you to output video and audio to anything you want including video confrenceing apps. It also allows audio to be brought in from other apps such as Zoom or Teams.

On all of the inputs to OBS you can apply filters. For example, on audio you can use a simply equaliser, apply compression, noise gates etc. Essentially, all the things that would improve speech intelligibility.

OBS Studio is free. There is a vast range of support for almost any OBS question.

I use OBS to have my logo displayed as a lower third on Teams.

There are lots of ideas here to help the person with the disability, but we should take a step back and consider what the rest of us can do.
Yes, Teams can be adjusted to manage ambient noise, but is everyone using a decent microphone? Ear buds with a mini-mic hanging by your navel won't give good sound quality, and relying on the computer's built-in microphone is a waste of time. I have met people on calls who don't want to wear a headset and microphone because it doesn't *look* professional. Sorry, but it is the only way to *sound* professional unless you invest in a broadcast-quality microphone.
Positioning is also important. If you are using two screens (or a computer and mobile) then make sure they are set up so that you can look at the camera when you are talking. This isn't just to allow lip-reading, it also shows your body language better, and anyway, it is polite to face the person you are talking to.
Above all, the facilitator should call out anyone who isn't coming across clearly. They might not realise it when they are in full flow, so ask them to repeat something if it wasn't clear.

In reply to Geof Sheppard:

Hi Geof, You have articulated so much better something I was trying to get across with my response. Yes, technology is incredibly useful, but hearing loss is a funny thing and making the sound quality better with all the things that have been suggested above is great, but doesn't necessarily really help. Visuals are so more important, and being able to see who is talking and to see all their facial 'body' language is vital. TBH, I got so fed up with asking people to repeat things, or to look at the camera or not talk across each other I ended up leaving my last job as it was genuinely starting to affect my confidence. Particularly when my line manager told me to 'listen more carefully' in meetings so I didn't slow proceedings down!

In reply to Geof Sheppard:

This is an interesting thought, we have been focused on the tech and systems because that's how the employee brought the issue to us. "I'm struggling to hear in teams meetings, can we look at headphones".

We have implimented a cameras on policy in meetings, we have the press to speak function turned on and some have even started using the "raise hand" feature which is nice.

Thinking about how I join teams calls, my camera is on one screen with the teams window and presenation/notes are on a different screen, so I'm sure people get to look at the side of my face from time to time while I read from my second monitor. I've never really thought about it until recently as it's become normalised within a virtual environement to have different windows open on different screens.

In reply to Susan:

I'm so sorry to hear that you had to leave your job because you weren't being supported. It just shows that it isn't always the technology which needs fixing, but the people too.