Erik Jorgensen, Au.D., Ph.D., CCC-A
Assistant Professor
Soundscape and Audiology Research Lab
Communication Sciences and Disorders, UW-Madison
Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids: Current Status and Future Challenges
The Over-the-Counter (OTC) Hearing Aid Act went into effect in the fall of 2022, making hearing aids available without a prescription from an audiologist. What are OTC hearing aids? Who are they for? How can people with hearing loss successfully use OTC hearing aids? This talk will first review the motivation for, history, and current legal and regulatory status of OTC hearing aids. Then, the challenges, particularly service-delivery and self-fitting, for OTC hearing aids will be discussed. Particular attention will be paid to our recent work in developing hearing aid gain-frequency presets that maximize coverage for the potential OTC user population.