The goal of this project is to understand the experiences of people who wear hearing aids in non-speech environments. This study has two distinct cohorts: people who wear hearing aids and people who do not. The primary method of this study is the soundwalk, which involves taking participants to different key areas around the Eriksholm Research Centre (ERC) to actively listen at pre-defined locations. After the soundwalk, the researcher conducts semi-structured interviews with the participants, allowing the pre-survey results and other thoughts to be further explored. These results were then coded and analyzed using grounded theory, and subsequently compared to identify key differences in cohort experiences.
The overall results indicate that specific interests in certain sounds and the ability to describe those sounds play a significant role in determining the differences in participant experience, in addition to a hearing aid’s ability to mitigate wind and traffic noise and the wearer’s ability to identify electric and hybrid cars.

Keywords
Hearing aids, soundscapes, accessibility, inclusive design, equity in healthcare