Hacker News Reader

Comment by SkyPuncher | Hacker News Reader

Most startups are not technical problems. Hearing aids are no different.

There is a stigma with hearing aids. You have to get over both the internal ego and the external stigma. For many people, that means admitting they're aging and "need help".

Frankly, it really doesn't matter how amazing the hardware is. That's just an incredibly challenging problem to overcome.

View on HN

The one person in my family with these issues is quite the opposite. "I don't care if the aid is visible, I don't care if I have to charge it daily, I just want to hear properly."

The example they cite is people with vision problem. Very few people hide their glasses. If anything, at this point, glasses are often considered as enhancing a person's beauty.

Nobody cares when I wear AirPods all over the place, they actually (almost) work like hearing aids and definitely could with some software tweaks alone, even more so with minor hardware tweaks.

Get somebody to design hearing aids that are meant to be noticed instead of badly hidden.

You can get over-the-ear hearing aids in plenty of colors. This is not where the gap lies.

When you talk to people, do you take your AirPods out?

Or do people just talk more loudly at you since they don’t know how well you can hear.

I don't mean to say I leave my airpods in when I'm having a conversation with a person, but for example walking to the grocery store and checking out. People don't seem to notice, or if they do they don't act in any way other than normal.

Yea, but nobody cares about people walking around with hearing aids.

The stigma is in conversations...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com