Tactile aids for the profoundly deaf

Abstract

This paper concerns acoustic-tactile devices for deaf individuals who obtain negligible help from conventional hearing aids. For the postlingually deaf potential benefits include help in lipreading and in maintaining good speech production, and awareness of environmental sounds such as doorbells, telephones, traffic, etc. For the prelingually deaf, simple awareness of sound may facilitate the early acquisition of lipreading and aid production. Wearability of aids and early provision to the prelingually deaf are important considerations. Though the importance of vibrotactile stimulation to the deaf has been apparent through the ages, advances in technology make possible special aids which would have been completely impractical even a decade ago. At present the field has more questions than answers: Are wearable multistimulator devices practical? Do they have a significant advantage over single stimulator devices? What are the best acoustic-tactile transforms? Does the skin sense have adequate channel capacity to serve as a sensory substitute for hearing? How do these aids compare with cochlear implants—as communication aids?—in relieving the isolation of deafness? Current outlook gives optimism that answers to some of these questions will be soon forthcoming.