While hearing-aid wearers take a back door approach to configuring their hearing aids, they will be using the exact same software as their audiologists and have exactly the same freedom to carelessly adjust every parameter.
This is potentially dangerous to the ears but, in practice, I reckon that the risk is very low. But still, if you have damaged (or do damage) your hearing as a result of self-programming your hearing aids, I would very much like to hear from you.
To avoid the risk of damage, I have been wondering whether manufacturers might consider making light consumer versions of the programming software and, if they did, whether the software would be of any use.
For example, the reduced software version might only let us adjust a subset of the parameters. Or it might let us adjust all of the parameters but only within a restricted range (centered around the audiogram) so that, no matter how high you set the controls, you won’t cause damage to your ears. Or maybe you’d have to activate a legal disclaimer online to adjust parameters beyond a given range.
Certainly some control must be better than no control and a subset is a step in the right direction.
But in the end I think that users want to see everything that can be adjusted so maybe it is better for us to use the full software versions anyway.
Thoughts and comments welcome!
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