Category: Jobs and Employment
So, I'm hard of hearing and blind. I want some sort of job that will put my typing skills to good use. Can't really use the phone, because I have a very hard time understanding people. Any ideas?
Hi. I'm in the same boat as you, but can hear well enough to do medical transcription. In fact, I was just getting ready to make a post of my own when I saw yours so thought I'd answer it first. How hard-of-hearing are you and do you use hearing aids? I can use a headset, but I have a connector that I can use in conjunction with a remote for my hearing aids that allows me to hear the dictation directly into my "ears", which makes it a lot cleaner and sharper. I just plug the little cable into my remote and then put the other end into the computer speaker headphone jack and it works great for me. Alas, my work situation is turning into a nightmare so I'm no longer transcribing. You can check out the details of my situation in my own post if yu want, which I will write now. Good luck to you. Hope you're able to find some gainful employment.
I have the same kind of remote thing for my hearing aids. Can't really use headphones because of the awkward way they go over behind the ear aids and the sound quality isn't that great. Hearing a person depends on several things, I have trouble understanding people with heavy accents, or if there's lots of background noise, etc.
I wasn't aware that there were remotes for behind-the-ear aids, but I'm thinking that your degree of hearing loss might be a little less severe than mine, as I have the in-the-ear kind that fill up the bottom half of my ears. I was evaluated for a behind-the-ear model several years ago, but was told that my degree of hearing loss was too severe. I had worn the tiny in-the-canal type for years, but had to go to the larger ones because of progressive hearing loss. In any case, I can transcribe just fine. You can turn up the dictation, slow it down, and it's quite easy to understand accents if you can hear them well enough. If you have to you can always work at home through a service. I do understand your frustration with background noise, though. Good luck.
That's weird, cuz they told me the in the ear ones were too weak for my hearing loss. Mine is proggressive also. I have Norrie's Syndrome.
I wasn't familiar with Norrie's disease, so had to look it up. It sounds as if your hearing is probably just as crappy as mine, but I could hear well enough to do the job I was hired for with room to spare. You should really look into it if you don't mind a sedentary kind of job. Like I said before, it's something you could always do from home, too.