Dining out with the hearing impaired? Here Are Some Useful Tips

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Dining out with the hearing impaired? Here Are
Some Useful Tips
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Restaurants have always been a noisy yet
entertaining place to hang out with your family,
friends and loved ones. Believe it or not, noisy
environments for some diners and eateries make
for a fun atmosphere. While every individual
would be excited about dining out in general, it
can be a bit of challenge for a person with
hearing loss to communicate in such a loud
setting, sometimes even for people with normal
hearing.
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So, here we have gathered a couple of tips to
make it easier for the hearing impaired and
people accompanying them to a restaurant to enjoy
the provided environment and avoid communication
problems.

• Be smart about your choice
• Ditch the table, go for a booth
• Avoid sitting in areas around the kitchen

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Be Smart About Your Choice
When it comes to dining out with people with
hearing loss, you have to look beyond the food,
taste décor or ambience. No matter how tempted
youre to the classy décor or comprehensive menu
of the restaurant you last visited, you must make
sure the restaurant you pick is
hearing-loss-friendly in the first place.
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• Here are a few pointers for you to make a better
  choice
• Avoid a restaurant with hard surfaces and high
  ceilings as they make for a reverberant
  environment.
• Pick a well-lit spot which allows to easily see
  verbal clues like facial expressions and body
  language of the speaker.

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Ditch the table, go for a booth
Booth seating is typically created to make more
room for comfort and privacy while lessening the
noises around. A booth with high hacks or
surfaces will help draw environmental sounds out
of your conversation so that you can easily hear
people around you and communicate effectively
with them.
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Avoid Sitting In Areas Around The Kitchen
Sit near the kitchen, particularly those with an
open-design, and you will only make it harder for
yourself to communicate in the already noisy
atmosphere of the restaurant. Reserve a booth as
far as possible from the kitchen of the diner so
that you dont have to struggle to hear others
and be active part of conversations.
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Additional Tip
While most advanced hearing devices like Siemens
hearing aids ad Starkey assistive listening
devices to name a few are optimised for noisy and
challenging environments, it is advisable to sit
with your back toward the wall or source of
unwanted background noise. Also, it will be
helpful if your companions too sit with their
back against the wall so that there is only one
sound for you to focus on. Adhere to these
considerations when dining out and you will sure
make for a better and enjoyable dining
experience.
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Contact Us
Address Hearing Aid Specialists S.A 6 Grenfell
Street, Kent Town, SA 5067, Australia Phone
0883626099 Fax [phone] Email
reception_at_hassa.com.au Website www.hassa.com.au