| It is estimated that in western countries, hearing loss affects about 20% of adults still in the labor market. While for most there is no cure, the proper use of a well-fitted hearing aid greatly improves hearing. Despite availability of highly advanced hearing aids, less than 20% use a hearing aid. These figures are the point of departure of an interdisciplinary project with conversation analysts, hearing health experts, designers, a theater group and a hearing aid company. The goal of this collaboration is to investigate the low compliance rate in the use of hearing aids in order to innovate both in the interactional and technological aspects of hearing aid use. The disciplines involved share the methodological feature that the perspective of the participants constitutes the core of their approach. In this presentation results from the analysis of two kinds of data are reported. (1) The conversation analytic examination of video-taped hearing aid fittings shows that dispreferred social phenomena such as lack of intersubjectivity, challenges to credibility of subjective experiences and an interactional achievement of diffuseness hinder the purpose of the encounter. These results are applied towards the design of a communication tool to be used in the training of hearing aid fitters. (2) The results of the analysis of the audiology sessions are discussed in meetings of the interdisciplinary team of researchers. These meetings are video-taped in order to provide data for researching the innovation process. The presentation focuses on how the researchers from the different disciplines display their conceptualization of the participant’s perspective in the interaction of the collaboration. These results are applied towards a model of interdisciplinary work. Thus this project contributes to the areas of applied conversation analysis, STS (science-technology-society), augmented interaction, and design (user-entered design/participatory innovation). |
