Phone recommendations for hearing impaired husband

[Texanna]

My husband is severely hearing impaired, and he is ready to step into the world of smarter phones.

Are there any Android phones that have speech to text capabilities? We have a Captel caption phone at home, which will caption the caller's side of a conversation.

I think he would be more comfortable with an actual keyboard, like a Blackberry, since he has only sent one text message in his life, using my Samsung Centura. He is currently on ATT GoPhone, but the carrier really doesn't matter.

I appreciate any suggestions or guidance.

 

[funkylogik]

I dont think there are many android phones left with a physical keyboard but, like anyone, im sure he could adapt to an on screen one with vibration feedback.
Do you mean youd like the other persons speech to be converted to text that your husband can read? I honestly dont know if thats possible or, if it is, how accurate it would be.
I dont know anyone who is hearing impaired so i cant honestly say if android is good but ive heard that iphones are very good for hearing/vision impaired people. I dont know if android has managed to match that yet :thumbup:

 

[Goodspike]

The Verizon Droid 4 still has a physical keyboard, and I think I remember seeing news that the Droid 5 would be released at some point. Also, I know I've seen a cover for the Samsung S4 which has a keyboard as part of it--not sure how well that would work.

How impaired is he? If he uses a hearing aid there are hearing aid devices which are blue tooth compatible.

 

[Thom]

Welcome to Android Forums.

There are some apps that in Play Store that might meet some of his requirements. Try searching or "real time speech to text". They may not be sufficient for his needs.

For device selection ... I always recommend going into your carrier's store and handling the phones that re of interest. You will probably know the instant you pick it up if it is "right for you".

I use the Droid Maxx and the not-physical keyboard is pretty convenient. It has a 5" display and the keys are quite large in landscape mode.

... Thom

 

[Goodspike]

I use the Droid Maxx and the not-physical keyboard is pretty convenient. It has a 5" display and the keys are quite large in landscape mode.

... Thom

I should probably add that the reason I owned a Droid 2 Global w/ physical keyboard was the wife wanted a physical keyboard. At the time we bought that was a fairly high end phone, so that didn't limit us too much. Now it is more of a limitation, because the Droid 4 is hardly high end.

The good thing is that the wife doesn't really miss the physical keyboard on the S4, which like the Maxx has roughly a 5" display.

Also, phones do have speech recognition, so the longer sentences don't need to be typed out (but they may need to be corrected).

 

[Texanna]

He can't use his hearing aids while on the phone. He is very impaired, 80% loss in one ear, 70% in the other, plus tinnitus. I hadn't thought of Bluetooth.

The Captel phone has speech recognition software, which transcribes the other party's half of the conversation and displays it on a screen. It doesn't always understand our Texas accents, though.

I think he could use a keyboard that isn't physical, but he doesn't think he can. I agree that we have to try the out, but you've given me some great advice.

 

[Thom]

I think there are a lot of possibilities and would suggest hat he discuss them with his hearing specialist to see what he/she would recommend for his particular case. This discussion could also ask if there are Android apps that could approach. Perhaps the specialist has access to some Android devices that he could experiment with.

... Thom

 

[Goodspike]

He can't use his hearing aids while on the phone. He is very impaired, 80% loss in one ear, 70% in the other, plus tinnitus. I hadn't thought of Bluetooth.

The Captel phone has speech recognition software, which transcribes the other party's half of the conversation and displays it on a screen. It doesn't always understand our Texas accents, though.

I think you understood me, but to be clear he would get a new hearing aid that would connect to his phone via BT. I have a Siemens device which is probably almost 3 years old now, so I don't know what the current technology is, It has a small device that would be the BT transmitter/receiver and also the microphone, so to answer the phone you could just hold that device and talk into it. The other advantage to that device is you can control your hearing aid from it, adjusting the volume for normal listening to conversations or special situations, rather than remembering which button to push on your hearing aid. You can also use it somehow to listen to TV, although I don't remember the details on that. Finally, you can also check your battery level from the device. My mother-in-law had the same hearing aid model, without the BT device, but I found that device very useful for finding out what was wrong with the settings on her device (although I'd have to turn off mine to use it.)

The problem with voice recognition isn't just accents. I use voice recognition a lot for texting and email, and I get all kinds of odd things I need to correct. I wish I could remember some of the more funny ones, but all I remember is that one of them somehow involved Asians.

 

[funkylogik]

That sounds excellent, a bluetooth hearing aid. Wish id invented that!
As for the on-screen keypad, i think we ALL had a learning curve with that but my 60yr old mother can use it now. It just takes time no matter who you are. I find that the haptic feedback (vibration when you touch a key) really helps, other people dont like it

 

[Goodspike]

That sounds excellent, a bluetooth hearing aid. Wish id invented that!

My hearing loss is marginal, so one of the reasons I got a hearing aid was because so many BT headsets have lousy volume.

 

[n_s_simpson]

How about this:


BBC News - CES 2013: The tablet that turns itself lumpy

 

[funkylogik]

Ive seen vids of that tech. Really cool eh