More than 30 million Americans have trouble hearing as well as they would like. Some assume there is nothing that can be done to help them, while others imagine that their hearing loss is not so great that it needs to be addressed.

Are they mistaken? Hearing aids are expensive and somewhat mysterious.

But technological advances may soon make it relatively easy for people to adjust their own hearing aids, or in some cases to buy hearing aids over the counter, rather like people buy reading glasses off the rack. Would that work for you?

Learn about the special services an audiologist (a health care professional who specializes in hearing) can offer, and meet an audiologist who herself was diagnosed with hearing loss in the first grade. Several years ago she underwent surgery for a cochlear implant. She tells us what that was like.

Stephanie Sjoblad, AuD, has been the Clinical Coordinator in the Division of Speech and Hearing at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill since 2001. Dr. Sjoblad is a licensed audiologist and hearing aid dispenser in the state of North Carolina and has received her Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology from the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association. She is a member of American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA), and a fellow in the American Academy of Audiology (AAA).

Dianne Van Tasell, PhD,  was a professor in the audiology program at the University of Minnesota for 20 years and then worked for and with hearing aid companies. Her current employer does not permit interviews, so the podcast has been edited to remove Dr. Van Tasell’s contribution.

The podcast of this program will be available the Monday after the broadcast date. The show can be streamed online from this site and podcasts can be downloaded for free.

Download the mp3 of this interview