Your father’s struggles epitomize the problem, and I appreciate your sharing the story, James. One aspect of this I didn’t get into in the story, because I don’t have research/data to cite but have witnessed it anecdotally in older men I know (and in myself) is how reduced hearing can cause people to hear things wrong and thus respond in ways that are out of context or outright stupid sounding. I mean, I’m not that old yet, and my hearing isn’t that bad yet, but still my wife sometimes gives me a look that clues me into the fact that I’ve just answered a question that was not asked. It’s easy to imagine a phone/earbuds/app setup that helped with this, even if only in some settings — the technology is there, and my bet is the cost would be pretty modest once the regulations are in place for OTC products.