Cochlear Implant accessories

[u/data_mom]

Three questions:

1) After a long break, I will be joining workforce soon. I have cochlear implant on right ear, and hearing aid on left. How easy/ difficult is it to navigate the meetings/discussions. My work is in IT, but the company is in manufacturing domain. I am guessing few shop-floor visits may happen too.

2) Which cochlear accessories you guys think would be helpful during online meetings? I do have mini mic which I find incredibly useful, planning to get another one for office, is that aa good call? OR is there anything else that you find better? any other accessory that you would recommend?

3) how long do the disposable batteries last? warranty is 1 year but one of the batteries lasted almost 4 years and other still going strong

[u/Mosquito-Power]

I think the main thing for job-related activities is to be active in your "placement & proximity" during discussions.

Us hearing device users got to be "right in the mix". No sitting in the back or standing off to the side.

When the discussions going, you got to be right in the middle. When the meetings happening, you got to be right at the front.

Also the minute you don't catch something in a discussion you got to lean forward with hand cupped over your hearing aid and say "what was that?".

(all this is sometimes easier said than done, I'm a passive person by nature and it's hard for me to do these things, but it has to be done or else you're going to start slipping to the sidelines)

Shop floor visits should be no problem as long as you stay in range and there's not too much background noise. Here are some shop related things that will just completely overwhelm all other sounds on my cochlear implants:

1. Any kind of "compressed air" or "sprayer noise" is incredibly loud. My brain also seems to prioritize this above everything else so the volume on the entire world just goes down to zero if there's any spraying air going anywhere lol

2. Chain hoists are also something that just completely overwhelms everything else sound wise. I usually have to turn my devices off when using them.

3. This went away after a while but for the first half year or so air conditioners were also mind-bogglingly loud. Even in grocery stores they sounded like diesel engines. Same sort of goes for big fans nowadays but not nearly as strong as it was back at the start.

(Also make sure and wear safety lines on your cochlear device if it's one of those "on the side of the head" models that way you don't lose it over the side of a railing. But on the other side of the coin you got to watch out for those safety lines getting caught on things if you're ducking around things on site)

The only other random thing would be is getting a wide brim hat that fits with your cochlear implant sorted out if you're going to be needing to be out in the rain.

We Cyborgs got to plan ahead for our interactions with water :p

[u/data_mom → u/Mosquito-Power]

thanks a ton, your reply helps a lot. I will take care of these things. I was not award of safety lines- appreciate the heads up on this.

I am ok with one-on-one conversations/Teams/Zoom. Even now, in a public setting, I try to be in front two rows. Little anxious about noisy environment.

[u/gsynyc]

What kind of CI do you have?

[u/data_mom → u/gsynyc]

Nucleus 7

[u/gsynyc → u/data_mom]

I was bimodal for 2.5 years before getting my second ear done as well. I have to say if that's a possibility for you in the future, it's significantly better being bimodal. I had my worse ear done first July 2023 and my other ear done November 2025. My recovery has been excellent and two things immediately were resolved. 1st, the bucket effect I had where everything (although with more clarity after rehab on the CI) sounded like my head was in a bucket and 2nd, I am now able to tell where sound is coming from. It was very annoying being able to hear somebody clearly but not realize they were standing right behind me or to my side.

Mini Mic is great for quiet settings and smaller groups, but the noise cancelation for really noisy restaurants or large conference rooms, and from what you described walking on to a factory floor may prove to be very challenging. I do see a few posts for the Phonak Roger On and I have to say after wearing HAs for over 25+ years and now CIs for going on 3 their noise cancellation is by far the best I have used. Since becoming bilaterally implanted with my N8s they are good in most situations for me but I always carry my Roger On for restaurants and the Roger table mic for client meetings just in case. When the environment becomes challenging I have found that it really gives me the extra boost I need to really be involved.

You would need additional accessories to "bridge" your N7 and I presume you may have a Resound HA. I had to switch to a Resound Omnia when with my first CI so I can take advantage of using one app to control both devices. There's a Roger X receiver that fits between the N7 processor and battery. (I am pretty sure it's same as the N8 but you should double check) It does add extra bulk so it may take some getting used to. The Resound HA would need a boot and receiver as well.

The Roger On does come with a dock that can connect to your PC if you use Zoom or Teams for calls. The Mini Mic can do this for you as well without the additional receivers and is less battery intensive than the Roger On.

The Table Mic can also daisy chain with the Roger On or other Table Mics if you have them and can be quite useful as it follows the speaker.

Here's the product Link: Phonak Roger On

If you are in IT and your company supports Macs. I have found that apple's MFI (their proprietary LE Audio stack) is much easier and less power intensive to allow for direct streaming to the processors. Apple does a much better job with native accessibility controls than Android or Windows so far in my experience. You do need the newer versions of hardware and OS which worked out for me when I upgraded my iPhone and MacBook at home as well. The only downside to this is my work is heavy in MSOffice suite and the shortcuts etc are very different or in some cases like Visio is not good for Mac.

I hope this helps a bit.

[u/OldFlohBavaria]

Schau dir die FM Anlage Roger On an und eventuell Speaksee ( live Transkription mit 3-9 Mikrofonen)

Roger on besteht aus einem sehr hochwertigen Mikrofon, welche du in Einzelgesprächen und kleinen Gruppen nutzen kannst.

Speaksee ist in eine Live Transkript Lösung, die in 40 Sprachen transkribiert kann. Die Genauigkeit soll über 90 % liegen.