Household solutions

D

Designer Bob

New Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2007
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Hi,

My names Bob. I'm a student at RIT, a college with a large deaf student population. I've recently started researching houseware products and what some of the possible difficulties are that deaf and hard of hearing individuals face around the home. I was wondering if anyone could offer up their thoughts or experiences regarding difficulty with products that people who are not hard of hearing may not experience. An example would be a tea kettle....you couldn't hear it whistle.

Also, hearing about any creative solutions to some of the problems experienced in daily home life would be fantastic. This is all for informal research purposes, so any stories or thoughts you provided would be fantastic. Thanks!
 
When I turn vent fan on the stove hood, I sometime forget to turn it off. I can not hear the vent fan running. Would be nice if there's device that alert me that the vent fan is still on. I try to remember to turn on hood light every time I use vent fan, but I don't always remember to.
 
Hi!
I am losing my hearing most likely due to Meniere's. Haven't ruled out other possibilities yet though. I am having difficulty around the house too. I can't hear the water boiling on the stove, I miss timers occasionally, have left the freezer and fridge open because I can't hear the rush of air anymore. My hearing loss fluctuates so some days are better than others. Knocking on the door (I live in an apt building) doesn't always get my attn now either. Hopefully some people will post solutions they have used? I am trying to be more visually aware and not leave the kitchen if I'm cooking/working on something but it is such an adjustment. Growing up hearing for 21 years I didn't realize how much I rely on sound cues for the most simple things!
 
solution

Ophelia,

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I think I may have a solution to the door knocking problem for you. Hear at RIT the dorm rooms come equipped with a doorbell linked to a light. When you hit the doorbell it flashes this light inside the room. It's very effective...you know someone is there every time. Hope this helps.
 
For the stove hood fan, I have a very simple solution. You may have noticed at some auto stores, a small vent fan that is used to blow fragrance when the A/C is on. I used that for my vent fan, and I know when I left the vent fan on.

Oops, I left the fan on...
fan1.jpg


There! it's off now.
fan2.jpg
 
Off the top of my head, I think of the stove hood vent fan, bathroom vent fans, and stove timer alarms that are not audible to Deaf persons. To solve the bathroom vent fans, I replaced them with timer-based switches since vent fans of any kind can recirculate a whole house of air in less than an hour. That's expensive air conditioning! However, I cannot really think of any other houseware items that disadvantage us because of our deafness.

On the other hand, we do have issues with non-houseware items. There are several things that my wife and I noticed as homeowners and drivers where our deafness inconveniences, and even endangers us, as follows:

1. Just last week, in the middle of being busy, my wife left the minivan running in the attached garage at home. Since we couldn't hear the vehicle running, it ran all night long. Our daughter and us suffered from carbon monoxide poisioning and had to go to the hospital for examination and medical treatment.

Our carbon monoxide detector went off, but we didn't hear the alarm. We will need to buy several audio-based signaller devices to place next to each fire alarm and carbon monoxide detector. The problem with this is that our normal household activities may trigger "false alarms." In addition, we are paying a lot of money for adding signalling functionality that's already incorporated in the original devices for hearing people. You wouldn't believe how expensive it is to properly set up a 2-story 2,700 sqft house with the proper light signalling systems and accessories so that its deaf residents can be aware of audio cues. I think I've spent $600 already and will need to spend another $300 to solve the carbon monoxide and fire alarm system audio issues.

2. On several occasions, both my wife and I have accidentally left the headlights on our vehicles. Neither of them have auto-shut off features, and we cannot hear the warning beep of the lights being left on. This has caused me to have to drive 40 minutes to where my wife works in order to jump start her vehicle. We are surprised that auto makers do not consider auto shutoff features to be worth their time for some of their models. We consider it to be a basic safety feature.

3. Too many restaurants and fast food places still rely on calling out names/order numbers to get a customer's attention. This is useless for Deaf patrons. Kudos to restaurants that invest in a vibration alerting system (i.e, those coaster-type devices).
 
I dunno if this is a practical suggestion - but I have a Hearing Ear Dog and he alerts me to just about everything! A squirrel can't run up a tree across the street without him letting me know :hmm: but I feel safer with him cause he is trained for most household sounds. Plus he is relaly cute!
 

Attachments

  • doger and wrench.jpg
    doger and wrench.jpg
    17.7 KB · Views: 8
navyman said:
Off the top of my head, I think of the stove hood vent fan, bathroom vent fans, and stove timer alarms that are not audible to Deaf persons. To solve the bathroom vent fans, I replaced them with timer-based switches since vent fans of any kind can recirculate a whole house of air in less than an hour. That's expensive air conditioning! However, I cannot really think of any other houseware items that disadvantage us because of our deafness.

On the other hand, we do have issues with non-houseware items. There are several things that my wife and I noticed as homeowners and drivers where our deafness inconveniences, and even endangers us, as follows:

1. Just last week, in the middle of being busy, my wife left the minivan running in the attached garage at home. Since we couldn't hear the vehicle running, it ran all night long. Our daughter and us suffered from carbon monoxide poisioning and had to go to the hospital for examination and medical treatment.

Our carbon monoxide detector went off, but we didn't hear the alarm. We will need to buy several audio-based signaller devices to place next to each fire alarm and carbon monoxide detector. The problem with this is that our normal household activities may trigger "false alarms." In addition, we are paying a lot of money for adding signalling functionality that's already incorporated in the original devices for hearing people. You wouldn't believe how expensive it is to properly set up a 2-story 2,700 sqft house with the proper light signalling systems and accessories so that its deaf residents can be aware of audio cues. I think I've spent $600 already and will need to spend another $300 to solve the carbon monoxide and fire alarm system audio issues.

2. On several occasions, both my wife and I have accidentally left the headlights on our vehicles. Neither of them have auto-shut off features, and we cannot hear the warning beep of the lights being left on. This has caused me to have to drive 40 minutes to where my wife works in order to jump start her vehicle. We are surprised that auto makers do not consider auto shutoff features to be worth their time for some of their models. We consider it to be a basic safety feature.

3. Too many restaurants and fast food places still rely on calling out names/order numbers to get a customer's attention. This is useless for Deaf patrons. Kudos to restaurants that invest in a vibration alerting system (i.e, those coaster-type devices).
Click to expand...

OMG, I am glad that you and your family are ok! That is scary!
 
I have a habit of leaving the water running....would be nice if there was an alert system for that.
 
Back
Top