Summary
Asked adult cochlear implant users and age-matched normal-hearing adults how hard they find communication in 12 everyday settings, including concerts, cinemas, places of worship and lectures.
Key findings
- Thirty-seven postlingually deafened adult implant users (8 unilateral, 17 bimodal, 11 bilateral, 1 not known) and 19 normal-hearing adults of similar age completed the 12-item Personal Assessment of Communication Abilities, rating difficulty from 1 (none) to 5 (very much).
- Implant users reported significantly more difficulty than the normal-hearing adults in all 12 settings.
- Implant users rated conversation in large groups hardest (mean 4.03), followed by concerts and movie theatres (3.77) and restaurants or cafés (3.75); the normal-hearing adults rated concerts and movie theatres 2.37.
- Places of worship and lectures were rated 3.11 by implant users and 1.41 by normal-hearing adults; one-to-one conversation was the easiest setting for implant users (1.74).
Limits
Self-report from a small sample at one academic centre, recruited from earlier research participants. The questionnaire does not ask about assistive listening, so it shows where implant users struggle, not what helps. The authors note possible under-reporting by experienced users and unmatched lifestyles between the groups.
Read the original
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12737855
Cited in
- What reaches a cochlear implant user in a venue, and how well?Partly answered
- What works in theatres and cinemas, and what do the rules ask of them?Partly answered
Cite this source
Titanji BN, Moberly AC, Tamati TN. Real-world Speech Communication Experiences of Cochlear Implant Users. Otology & Neurotology Open 5(4). 17 December 2025. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12737855/ (accessed 9 October 2026).
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