It was on July 6, 1999 when my life was going to become different. I no longer had to deal with struggling to hear at all times, but I could become a part of the hearing world. Since I was seven, I became a part of the hearing world through the aid of cochlear implants. Despite how it can be stressful to wear on my ears at time, I love how I am more involved with society than I had been with the aid of hearing aids.

With cochlear implants, I was brought into the world to try new things. Basically, I had to work and look around for different tools that would work right for me. I did not start to become intrigued with the accessories that were available and worked for me until college. I do have to point out how hearing people, and this INCLUDES your immediate family, should not think of buying things because they feel that it would be best for you. Instead of interfering with how a deaf person can live, allow them to decide what they feel would be best.

The top five accessories/technologies I truly love, and would always use, are:

1. The TTY/relay feature on iPhone

I remember learning about 711/relay from a hearing itinerant a long time ago, but never put much thought into it. Since beginning college, there were always arguments with my mom about how I always had to tell her when she needed to call SCAT and how it should be scheduled (imagine the struggle). Two years ago, I looked into using relay, and I have been a full blown user for relay since first signing up. After using Purple Relay and Sprint IP for some time, I am in love with the relay feature that Apple has enabled for iOS 10. Using the iPhone now makes my life so much easier and I wouldn’t have to worry so much about using a different app to make phone calls.

2. Personal Audio Cable

After wasting so much time and money to constantly buy new headphones every nine months, I now use a a simple black cable to connect to my cochlear implants for entertainment. While the cable is pricy since it is so plain looking, the money spent on the cable is oh so worth it. A simple and plain black cable is actually the source to getting sounds from the source of entertainment to the inside of the cochlear implant! Bonus points for actually muting out any background noise and only focusing on the entertainment.

3. Sonic Alert Sonic Boom Alarm Clock

Let me admit something: I am a deep sleeper. With most of the mornings of me asking for “just five more minutes” and eventually getting water sprayed in my face by a water sprayer, I did not care for getting up to go somewhere; sleep was the only thing that mattered. I struggled with that too in college; I dreaded 8:00 classes because I also dread having to wake up at 6:00 in the morning to prepare for SCAT at 7:00. Eventually, I made an investment to get an alarm clock with a bed shaker. While the first clock worked well, it wasn’t effective and I would still sleep late. That all changed when I got the Sonic Boom alarm clock. Not only did it come with a bed shaker, but it enabled a nearby lamp to be plugged into the device to use a flashing light to wake up. Because of this alarm clock, and the flashing feature, I now wake up at the same time every morning.

4. Cochlear Aqua+

I wrote an article about this during the summer: Aqua+ Experience. It is amazing to have the experience of hearing in the water or any wet environment. A long time ago, I was unable to communicate freely with the people who either came over or went to the beach with my family. I couldn’t really communicate with anyone because of having to take off my cochlear implants and secure them in a zip lock bag. With the Aqua+, I can hear in the pool, while in a wet environment, and while I am taking a shower. Like the personal audio cable, the Aqua+ is expensive, but money can easily be saved with buying the recipient kit if using for the first time.

5. TypeWell

Although this is not something I use on a daily basis, TypeWell is an excellent tool that helped me through college!! Instead of relying on poorly written notes wrote by fellow classmates, I can use a laptop/iPad/tablet/smartphone, Skype with a transcriber, and have speech transcribed into text! Most hearing people do have to be aware that the options they consider would be best for the deaf student might not be the best option to benefit the student in the classroom. When considering options, although teachers, hearing itinerants, and parents are acting as the advocates, the deaf person should advocate for themselves. Every person has different needs and preferences, from having the lecture signed by an interpreter to a transcription services like TypeWell, Computer Aided Real-Time Transcription (CART), or any other services that may be provided by the college/university. Because of how well TypeWell worked despite very small interruptions and glitches (nothing is ever perfect), I would consider it as an accommodation if/when I get accepted to a graduate school.