{"id":7833,"date":"2025-07-26T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7833"},"modified":"2025-07-26T20:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T20:30:00","slug":"glasses-from-the-hearing-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7833","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Glasses from the hearing department\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tni-source-date\"><strong>Originally published:<\/strong> 2025-07-26T20:30:00+00:00. Historical source article: benefits, rules, amounts and deadlines may have changed. Check the official source for current information.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to his new glasses from VA, Korean War Navy Veteran Walter Crites can have interesting conversations once again.<\/p>\n<p>About 25 years ago, Crites, a 91-year-old patient at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/northern-arizona-health-care\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Northern Arizona VA Health Care System<\/a> (NAVAHCS), lost almost all his hearing after complications from multiple surgeries.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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<p>For the past decade, having any form of conversation was a real challenge for Crites.<\/p>\n<p>\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<p>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<p>\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<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Caption glasses<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/Caption-Glasses-003_r1-scaled.jpg\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">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<p>In early 2024, Crites heard about <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/?s=caption+glasses\">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<p>Dr. Gilder had been reading about the new glasses as well, and began working to get Crites a pair.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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<p>\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<p>\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how fast and accurate the captioning is,\u201d Dr. Gilder said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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<p>\u201cAll devices through VA that assist with hearing loss are free for the Veterans,\u201d Dr. Gilder said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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<p>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<p>\u201cYou have to take the initiative for your health,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"tni-attribution\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/141317\/glasses-from-the-hearing-department\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/a>. Its Veterans is an independent publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caption glasses enable a hearing-impaired 91-year-old Korean War Veteran to have conversations again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-veterans-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Glasses from the hearing department\u2019 - Its Veterans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Caption glasses enable a hearing-impaired 91-year-old Korean War Veteran to have conversations again.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7833\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Glasses from the hearing department\u2019 - 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