Hearing Loss and AirPods

My name is Mikail. I’m 24 and I was diagnosed with hearing loss in my right ear in November, 2024. My ear drum is ruptured, and the three tiny bones in the ear that transfer sound — the auditory ossicles — are deteriorating. I have about 40 decibels of hearing loss in my right ear, which for me means that conversation is audible, but hardly intelligible. Thankfully my left ear still works fine. I am scheduled for a surgery to receive a prosthetic replacement for these auditory ossicles. This procedure may restore some of my hearing. At the very least, my hearing loss will stop advancing.

On October 28, 2024, Apple released an FDA-approved Hearing Aid feature among others, which I’ve used every day since. In fact, the Apple Hearing Test is how I discovered the early stages of my hearing loss. I immediately made a doctor’s appointment which led us to today where I await surgery.

Incredibly, I have only lived in a world with hearing loss and Apple’s Hearing Aid feature. I took my first hearing test with my AirPods on October 28, the day Apple released the feature. I take these tests regularly to utilize two key features: Hearing Aid and Media Assist.

The Hearing Aid does exactly what you think, boosting volume in my right ear. Media Assist adjusts the audio equalization for both ears. For me, I get a boost in the right ear. With this feature on, it’s like my hearing loss disappears. Both of these features compensate for the various levels of hearing loss across the audio spectrum. It is not simply a boost in volume.

This is a feature that everyone involved should feel immense pride in putting to market. I am constantly in awe that these headphones that I already owned would end up being truly indispensable.

As a quick aside, I actually made a little website as an assignment for a hearing science class I took in 2020. It’s funny how things come around again.

Back in 2021, I owned AirPods Max, gifted to me by my then-girlfriend. What a gift. I loved those headphones to an unreasonable degree. The noise cancelling made the world feel still. The heft of them was comforting and not burdensome, an unpopular experience. They sounded great, too. I loved them. Loved. They were one of the first things to go when we wanted a little extra cash after buying our first house.

So, I of course bought them again after seeing the new wired and USB-C lossless features because, well, I love AirPods Max irrationally.

To rationalize my fondness, I started researching hearing accessibility features that were available on AirPods Max. Apple calls these Headphone Accommodations. I discovered that just like on AirPods Pro 2, I could upload an audiogram — the results of my hearing test — and have audio equalized on AirPods Max. This was perfect. I made sure I had a copy of my audiogram and went through the steps listed on this forum post. Apple’s support article can be found here. When I opened the Headphone Accommodations setting, every feature was there but one: the option to upload my audiogram. It was gone. Why?

Apple removed this feature in iOS 18.1. Axed. An accessibility feature from 2020 made for most Apple and Beats-branded headphones has been made exclusive to AirPods Pro 2.

I’d been so accustomed to my AirPods Pro’s Media Assist feature that, when I put on my AirPods Max for the first time, I cried. It’s like I lost my hearing for a second time. I knew that sound was coming out of the right headphone, but I could not hear it. I don’t wear headphones while I’m teaching, so I know what my life is like with hearing loss, yet when I put on headphones, there’s an expectation I’ve set for myself that everything goes back to normal.

Because my hearing loss is unilateral, my only option is to pan the audio to the right. Even so, my hearing loss is not quite a flat 40 decibels, so sound in my right ear seems slightly off. So, that’s my current solution. To compensate for the reduction in volume in my functioning left ear, I just turn the volume up. It’s serviceable.

Apple, please add this feature back. If not to continue making the world more accessible to everyone, but to avoid undoing the progress you made five years ago when you first solved this problem. You are a leader in accessibility. Don’t leave other devices behind because they’re not FDA-approved hearing aids. I’ve learned that these accessibility features are vital. Let us hear again, like we could before October 28.