Towards Trusted Hearing Services in Australia
A key finding of the Deafness Forum Australia survey was the support by both consumers and providers for regulating audiologists to align with other healthcare professionals.
But as one survey respondent noted, “There’s a lot of money in hearing aids, and some players in the industry might not want to see that change.”
Deafness Forum Australia and industry body, Independent Audiologists Australia believe that establishing a unified, independent national standard for audiologists and audiometrists, reinforced by strong governance, can help empower users of hearing services to make informed decisions about their hearing health care.
The Secrets of Hearing
For people with hearing challenges, understanding speech in noisy environments can be a significant challenge. But researchers have made groundbreaking discoveries about how the ability – to focus on just one person talking in a crowd – develops in children. Their study focuses on a process where the brain combines different pitches from each ear into a single sound. This process allows us to tune in to specific voices while tuning out others.
Challenges Faced by Hearing Families with Deaf Children
More than 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who have limited knowledge about deafness and require comprehensive support and information to communicate with their deaf child. However, little is known about the systems that support hearing families with...
Regulating Audiologists to align with other healthcare professionals
Deafness Forum Australia is committed to supporting the registration of audiologists and audiometrists in Australia under the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme, emphasising the benefits it would bring to public safety.
Funding Cuts to Community Supports
Specialist community-based supports for people who are D/deaf or have hearing loss are vital to our communities. If you are concerned about future funding for citizen representative organisations, help us understand the issues by sparing a moment to take our Survey:...
World Hearing Day: ‘No research about us, without us’ launched
‘No research about us, without us’ is Deafness Forum Australia’s good practice guide for citizen and community involvement in health, disability and medical research. Updated and launched to mark World Hearing Day in 2025, this landmark statement explains the...