Start with the room
These cost nothing and help whether or not you use an app.
- Sit where your parent can see your face and the light is on it, not behind you.
- Turn the TV or music down before talking, not during.
- One person at a time. It is the hardest rule to keep in a family, and the one that helps most.
- Rephrase instead of repeating louder. A different word often works where shouting does not.
Where captions help
Captions fill in what hearing aids and lip-reading miss, and they let your parent join in rather than ask “what did he say?” every minute. The app has to be simple enough that they can use it without you in the room: open it and it listens, no menus.
That is the reason Akoe exists. It was made for the author’s own father, who is hard of hearing, in a family that moves between Spanish and English. The first version was a private build on his phone.
Setting it up for them
Do the one-minute first setup together: your parent reads two sentences so the app learns their voice, and you add the family’s names. From then on they open the app and it listens.
Say plainly that it is there to help them join the conversation, not to replace you speaking clearly. And check in after a week to see whether it is actually being used.
Questions
Will my parent manage the app?
It is built for that. There is nothing to choose: open it and it listens. You can do the first setup with them.
