Resurrection of Speech Intelligibility Tests in Audiology

This paper describes how hearing aids are selected, and the general lack of use of speech materials in the selection process.The history and current status of speech tests is reviewed, in general and within audiology.Finally, equipment and procedures are described which are designed to make speech tests sufficient 1y fast and accurate to be useful in hearing aid fitting.Academic papers are as bpring as they are unread.To be more interesting and readable, here is the simplified content of this paper, amplified and, I hope, justified in the sections below:A. Nobody knows how well a hearing aid works on speech, 3. because nobody bothers to measure speech intelligibility, C. because standard speech tests are slow and unreliable.D. Speech tests can be faster and somewhat more reliable; B. it requires a computer, speech materials with random access (meaning digitised), closed response materials, and automatic scoring, which nobody in a clinic ever has;F. unless, of course, it is our new APGDO speech audiometer.