Apple AirPods as hearing aids: how gadgets become assistive tech

As a person who is firmly relaxed at middle age – 57 percent of the way through life to be precise if Hold insurance mathematical government tables – I have started to notice certain things that do not work as well as before. Especially my eyes and my ears.

You can ask my family: my hearing is not what it used to be, and not only because I hear selectively from time to time. As for my eyes, I had it with lasers in 2005, but the increasing pain, as I read, tells me that the guarantee may have expired. And I'm not alone – about 14 percent of the Americans between 45 and 64 Experience Hearing loss in a way, while over 90 percent of over 45 Suffering from PresbyopiaOr the falling ability to concentrate on almost objects. World Health Organization worldwide Projects that almost 2.5 billion people will have any form of hearing loss by 2050.

But I have good news for aging habits (which is someday at some point). Our digital devices are increasingly being developed with functions with which users can overcome both the usual sensory age declines as well as more serious disabilities and illnesses. From Apple Airpods, which are Inexpensive hearing aids – and now, Translator on the GO – To the growing omnipresent of continuous glucose monitors In diabetics, some of the most promising uses of consumer technologies include our failed organic meat bags.

The largest consumer technician of “Nice to have” towards “Health Tool” occurred last year: the US Food and Drug Administration authorized The first over-the-counter listening-AID software. It is called “hearing aid” and enables adults with a light to medium -heavy hearing loss to use compatible AirPods as OTC hearing aids. Given the fact that even over -the -counter hearing aids can run from several hundred dollars to over $ 1,000approximately $ 200 Couple by Airpod Pro 2S Can feel like a bargain. The audiologist is still important for more complex hearing losses, but the confirmation of the FDA lowers the stigmatization and the price barriers for millions that clinical devices do not receive (or not).

And the same buds now speak several languages. Apple is new Live translationPart of the rollout “Apple Intelligence” of this autumn, Pipes two-way conversation translation Directly through your AirPods when you are paired to an iPhone. In demos and early reviews it is already good enough for everyday use, translated into English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish with more promised languages. For those who have ever tried to navigate in a medical form, a parent-teacher conference or a pharmacy collection in a second language, this is less a party trick and more social ramp.

Public places also come up. Auracast – Bluetooths Broadcast Audio Standard – turns loudly, crowded public venues in accessible hearing zones. Instead of lending sticky headsets in a theater, you can join a labeled audio stream with your own earphones or hearing aids. Google baked the support of Auracast in Android 16, and pixel telephones begin to feel “Join Broadcast” as normal as hopping on WiFi. That is dignity, not just decibel.

Our eyes are almost as bad as our ears, if at all: at least 2.2 billion people all over the world have a kind of visual impairment. And our addiction to digital devices is active: Studies have found That a daily 1-hour increase in digital screen time is more likely to be associated with a greater probability of myopia or short-sightedness of 21 percent.

However, if telephones are at least some of our visual problems, they have added functions that can help people with visual disturbances to navigate through the world. On the iPhone the Built-in magnifying app Use the device's camera to do some beautifully practical things. The turkey announces the removal of a door and how it opens. Show and speak the labels on physical buttons when you aim your fingers and all too often decodes unfathomable kiosks. And while automatic translation IPHONES-WEITER (and expensive) requires enough to use Apple Intelligence, these are stock functions, not add-ons.

About Android, over, Google's Lookout app Now goes over “What is in this picture?” To really useful follow-ups for visual impairment. With image and answers to Q&A, you can ask and speak for details about an image, helpful answers, and Google says that these descriptions are now driven by the newer Gemini AiM models. That means daily autonomy: “Is that the blue shirt?” “What does the sign say?” “Where is the send button?”

The transition from consumers to care also takes place in chronic diseases. Continuous glucose monitors – medical implants that follow the glucose level have been available for diagnosis for some time. But the FDA in 2024 cleared The first over -the -counter continuous glucose monitor, Dexcoms Stelo, for adults who do not use insulin (including diabetics who control their illness with oral medication and people who may be pre -diabetics). A few months later the Medical Devices Company Abbott Won Clearance For two over-the-counter sensors: Libre Rio (especially for adults with type 2 diabetes that do not use insulin) and Lingo (which more focuses on the wellness quantity).

No recipe needed; Just a phone and a sensor. For the 38 million Americans with diabetes -and the much larger group with pre-diabetes-das makes it easy to see how breakfast or a walk affects your glucose curve. Remember that data is not a diagnosis.

These new technologies are not only more convenient – they could literally make people healthier. Take hearing aid: a pioneering randomized study financed by NIH found that in older adults The cognitive decline over three years was slowed down by the treatment of hearing loss. This does not transform earphones into dementia shields, but shows the value of removing hurdles for the hearing. The same applies to diabetes, which requires lifelong management. Everything that makes it easier can help improve life.

Progress is when people no longer need expensive special devices. You can achieve the same advantages from the polished, affordable things you already have. For people who are deaf or hard of hearing, blindly or low vision to manage conditions such as diabetes or that they only come up in years like me, this re -wiring adds up to something radical: more agency with less trouble.

If only someone could design an implant that would find my remote control immediately.

A version of this story originally appeared in the Good Newsletter. Register here!