{"id":555132,"date":"2025-07-26T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=555132"},"modified":"2025-07-26T21:10:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T21:10:19","slug":"glasses-from-the-hearing-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=555132","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Glasses from the hearing department\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to his new glasses from VA, Korean War Navy Veteran Walter Crites can have interesting conversations once again.<\/p>\n

About 25 years ago, Crites, a 91-year-old patient at Northern Arizona VA Health Care System<\/a> (NAVAHCS), lost almost all his hearing after complications from multiple surgeries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He received a cochlear implant, an electronic device that allows some deaf people to hear, but it failed after about 15 years and could not be replaced due to various health concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the past decade, having any form of conversation was a real challenge for Crites.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to carry a steno pad and plenty of pens just to communicate,\u201d he said. \u201cMy wife has been tested to the extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crites eventually started using speech-to-text on his phone to understand what people were saying to him, but it still wasn\u2019t ideal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with that is you\u2019re constantly looking at your phone, so you\u2019re not as engaged in a conversation,\u201d said Dr. Darla Gilder, Crites\u2019s audiologist at NAVAHCS.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Caption glasses<\/h2>\n
\n
<\/a>
1)\tNorthern Arizona VA Health Care System (NAVAHCS) audiologist Dr. Darla Gilder turns on a brand-new pair of caption glasses made by Xander. (Max Efrein\/NAVAHCS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In early 2024, Crites heard about caption glasses<\/a>, which use augmented reality to display real-time captions in the field of view of the wearer. He started asking if he could get a pair through VA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr. Gilder had been reading about the new glasses as well, and began working to get Crites a pair.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The technology was so new, however, that VA was still testing it. Finally, Crites became the first Veteran at NAVAHCS to receive caption glasses in April 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to make life a whole lot simpler,\u201d Crites said when he received them. \u201cIt\u2019s funny, I\u2019m getting glasses from the hearing department!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how fast and accurate the captioning is,\u201d Dr. Gilder said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the average consumer would need to pay about $5,000 for the device, Crites and his fellow Veterans who are enrolled in VA health care pay nothing. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll devices through VA that assist with hearing loss are free for the Veterans,\u201d Dr. Gilder said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To be eligible for caption glasses, Veterans need to have a severe hearing disability or handicap that can\u2019t be properly assisted by other available options such as hearing aids or cochlear implants. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Crites said that his proactive approach to improving his health and wellbeing is the reason he got the glasses as soon as he did.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to take the initiative for your health,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to his new glasses from VA, Korean War Navy Veteran Walter Crites can have interesting conversations once again. About 25 years ago, Crites, a 91-year-old patient at Northern Arizona VA Health Care System (NAVAHCS), lost almost all his hearing after complications from multiple surgeries.\u00a0 He received a cochlear implant, an electronic device that allows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":555134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1654,5,1655],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-555132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-caption-glasses","category-health","category-hearing-impairment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=555132"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":555142,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555132\/revisions\/555142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/555134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=555132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=555132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=555132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}