A videotape of a speaker saying a set of test words and phrases was presented in background noise to 10 sighted older adults and 10 older adults with severe low vision (age-related maculopathy), all of whom had normal hearing. It was found that the word- and phrase-identification scores of the low vision group were significantly lower than those of the sighted group at all levels of background noise. Strategies are suggested for optimizing face-to-face communication in background noise for people with visual impairments.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ArgyleM. (1988). Bodily communication (2nd ed.). London: Methuen.
2.
BinnieC. A. (1974). Auditory and auditory-visual speech perception in various backgrounds of noise (a survey). In NielsenH. Birk & KamppE. (Eds.), Visual and audio-visual perception of speech: Sixth Danavox symposium (pp. 38–57. Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell.
3.
BoothroydA. (1968). Statistical theory of the speech discrimination score. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 43, 362–367.
4.
ErberN. P. (1969). Interaction of audition and vision in the recognition of oral speech stimuli. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 12, 423–425.
5.
ErberN. P. (1996). Communication therapy for adults with sensory loss (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Singular Publishing.
6.
ErberN. P., HollandJ., & OsbornR. R. (1998). Communicating with elders: Effects of speaker-listener distance. British Journal of Audiology, 32, 135–138.
7.
ErberN. P., & OsbornR. R. (1994a). An alternative use for BTE-FM listening systems. Hearing Instruments, 45, 19–21.
8.
ErberN. P., & OsbornR. R. (1994b). Perception of facial cues by adults with low vision. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 88, 171–175.
9.
KarpA. (1988). Reduced vision and speechreading. In DeFilippoC. L. & SimsD. G. (Eds.), (1988). New reflections on speechreading. Volta Review, 90, 5 (Suppl.), 61–74.
10.
LaverJ., & HutchesonS. (Eds.). (1977). Communication in face to face interaction.Middlesex, England: Penguin.
11.
LubinskiR., & HigginbothamD. J. (Eds.). (1997). Communication technologies for the elderly: Vision, hearing, and speech.San Diego, CA: Singular Publishing.
12.
MoscickiE. K., ElkinsE. F., BaumH. F., & McNamaraP. M. (1985). Hearing loss in the elderly: An epidemiological study of the Framingham Heart Study cohort. Ear and Hearing, 6, 184–190.
13.
O'NeillJ. J. (1954). Contributions of the visual components of oral symbols to speech comprehension. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 19, 429–439.
14.
RossM. (Ed.). (1992). FM auditory training systems.Timonium, MD: York Press.
15.
SumbyW. H., & PollackI. (1954). Visual contribution to speech intelligibility in noise. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 26, 212–215.
16.
TederH. (1990). Noise and speech levels in noisy environments. Hearing Instruments, 41, 32–33.
