Our Essential Role in Communication: Resources That Can Help

*Information updated on April 23, 2021

With May as Better Hearing Month, this is an important time to continue to highlight our essential role in communication and hearing health care.

With this in mind, we have developed information pieces and resources you can use with your patients and/or share with your communities, colleagues, and other health-care providers as you see fit.

• Hearing Assistance Apps…Until You Can Get to an Audiologist 
• Communicating While Wearing a Face Mask
• Universal Masking Flyer

Captioning Options

Here is a helpful list of captioning options you may want to consider.

ZOOM & Microsoft Teams: Live captions can be enabled for video meetings.

• Closed Captions
• Use Live Captions in Teams Meeting

Microsoft Office (Powerpoint 365 and Word): Transcribe your words as you present and display them on-screen as captions in the same language or a different language

• Present with Real-Time Automatic Captions
• Dictate Your Documents in Word

Google Voice (Google Doc and Google Slides): Use real-type captioning for documents or presentations.

• Google Voice for Transcripts
• Help: Present Slides with Captions

Smartphone Apps: Use Android: Live Transcribe app (Google Play Store; free) or iOS: Notes app (iOS store; free; use mic, don’t type).

• AVA Pro: Android and Apple
• Google Play: Live Transcribe
• iPhone, iPod, and/or iPad: Use Notes

Audiologist Resources

• Best Practices for Safety Conducting Hearing Testing During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• COVID-19: Moving Toward Full Audiology Services
• COVID-19 in Cerumen—A Potential Source of Viral Spread of Patients Infected With SARS-CoV-2
• Labeling COVID-19’s Long-Term Effects—What’s the Diagnosis?

Patient Resources

• CDC: ASL Video Series—COVID-19
• HLAA: How Do I Communicate with Doctors, Nurses, and Staff at the Hospital During COVID-19?
• HLAA: Communications & Medical Access in the Hospital During Disasters: Temporary Recommendations for Hospitals and Medical Facilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Guide For Deaf/Hard of Hearing To Communicate With Hospital Staff During Coronavirus Crisis

All COVID-19 Resources

All May Is Better Hearing Month Resources