Every household needs a smoke detector, but those who are hard of hearing can’t rely on audible signals to alert them to a potential fire. MaxiAids has the perfect solution for the deaf or hard of hearing community, so you can have peace of mind knowing your family is safe during the event of a fire.

Detectors with visual aids, such as smoke alarms with strobe lights, are exactly what the hearing impaired community needs. Instead of being alerted by the sound of a regular alarm, the flashing lights will be indication that it’s time to evacuate. In addition to flashing lights, hearing impaired people can be alerted to a hazardous fire by a shake-up receiver with a vibrator or bed shaker, just in case the visual aid is not enough.

Another option is to install smoke detectors that emit louder noises for those who are both hearing and sight impaired. Talking smoke alarms such as the Kidde Talking Smoke, Fire and Carbon Monoxide Alarm will alert homeowners with a loud voice system with three messages based on the reason for the alert.

The goal is to make smoke detectors unavoidable to notice in the case of a fire so that your family has enough time to follow the proper protocol to escape safely. MaxiAids has all the smoke detectors mentioned above to keep your household as safe as possible in the event of an emergency as dangerous as a fire.

Kidde Smoke Alarm with Strobe Light comes with a loud 85 decibel piercing alarm and strobe light alerts, which uses Ionization Technology which senses invisible particles produced by most flaming fires.

SafeAwake Smoke Alarm Aid with Bed Shaker triggers all your senses with a motorized bed shaker, a flashing light and a low frequency, high decibel square wave sound you can actually hear. 

Shake-Up Smoke Detector Kit with Vibrator detects smoke and then transmits a powerful signal within a 100 ft. radius to the Shake-Up receiver unit.

Silent Call Signature Series Fire Alarm Transmitter-Battery Input is designed to be wired into a home or building fire alarm system. When the fire panel is activated, the transmitter will send a wireless signal to any Signature Series receiver up to 2000 feet away.

Gentex Remote Visual Signal alerts homeowners with 60 Flashes per minute and comes with Universal Mounting Plate. 

120V AC 3-in-1 LED Strobe and 10 Year Combo Smoke & CO Alarm provides both visual and voice warnings. Comes with dual mode flash patterns for smoke or CO to differentiate the danger.

Keep your family safe with MaxiAids’ selection of smoke detectors with visual aids. Shop more hearing products, including hearing impaired telephones, hearing aid batteries and devices for the deaf and hard of hearing at our deaf store.

Digital eye strain, dry-eye disease, blurry vision-- our overuse of technology may be harming our eye sight and eye health.  They say, "The eyes are the window of the soul".  But what if our eyes are feeling tired, strained and out of focus... then the window becomes blurred...

Let's face it... we are all glued to our cell phones and other computer devices on a daily basis.  Eye muscles get very fatigued from the constant day-to-day use of these tech products.  The average adult in the United States, according to a Nielson Company audience report, spends over eight hours or more a day on a device.  For people who stare at a screen for long periods of time can experience symptoms of blurred vision, trouble focusing, tired red eyes, dry eyes, headaches and more.  

You can protect your eyes from screens and other tech devices

By taking twenty minute breaks away from your computer, remembering to blink when concentrating, do periodic eye exercises, look away from your device and gaze towards distant objects in a room, and use products that filter out blue light and computer glare which can help with eye fatigue and other eye symptoms.  Also it's a good idea to wear anti-reflective and glare reducing eye glasses.  Magnification products are helpful too. 

Exposure to blue light may have damaging effects

There are eye doctors that are concerned the exposure to blue light may eventually have a damaging effect on our eyes from the over use of electronic devices.  The blue light that emits from our cell phones is not filtered by our cornea or pupils.    

The blue light goes direct to our retinas, where damage may occur. Although there isn't enough evidence to back up how much damage the blue light emits, it still creates eye strain. Some experts believe the damage to the retina can lead to macular degeneration (central vision damage).

Take steps to help prevent visual impairment

Optometrist Dr. Justin Bazen, a medical advisor for the Vision Council, recommends taking steps to help reduce any potential damage to your eyes.  "Eyewear is available with lenses featuring magnification, anti-reflective and blue light-filtering capabilities to help reduce the symptoms associated with digital eye strain." You should also be proactive and conscientious of keeping your eyesight as healthy as possible because you want to avoid irreversible damage...

• Keep digital devices at about an arm’s distance away from the face
• Enlarge text size on your digital devices to expand content on the screen
• Take continual breaks from using digital devices
• Reduce overhead lighting in the room to decrease screen glare
• Adjust the lighting on digital devices

MaxiAids features many eyeglass products, magnification products and anti-glare products to help ease eye strain and make for more efficient viewing of your tech products.  Let us help aid you with the use of eye protective technology in today's modern tech world. -- Audrey Leonard

Go GREEN on St. Patrick's Day and Look to MaxiAids for low vision aids, blind accessories, products for the blind and visually impaired, and those with mobility challenges.

MaxiAids cares about the safety and independence of our customers who are faced with challenges of vision loss and mobility issues.  Look to MaxiAids for products for the blind and visually impaired, low vision aids, blind accessories, and vision products to help ease everyday tasks and to live life to the fullest.

It's a common fact that rock legends of the 70s and 80s have suffered irreversible hearing loss and tinnitus.

Hearing loss has affected over 48 million Americans

With some, it comes with the aging process, and with others, it's the exposure to loud noise, loud video games, television, movies, car stereos, headphones, noisy machinery, screaming stadium crowds, nightclub music, loud music concerts and more.  Most of these risks can be avoided.  Depending on your hobbies or career, the challenge of protecting your hearing can be difficult.

Tinnitus and hearing loss are quite common in the music industry

Many musicians and singers have been performing for over forty years and have recently been speaking out and going public on hearing education and awareness.  After years of loud noise exposure throughout their careers, artist Pete Townshend of The Who, Sting, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Jeff Beck, Ozzy Osbourne, Lars Ulrich of Metallica, Ted Nugent, Alex Van Halen and Brian Johnson of AC/DC, among others, are now talking about their hearing loss challenges and experiences, and how to protect and avoid the damage. 

It's important for the fans to protect their ears as well. Lars of Metallica has suffered from tinnitus throughout his entire music career and has spoken out publically to his music fans about the importance of getting a hearing check.  Alex Van Halen had lost 60% hearing in his left ear and 30% in his right.  AC/DC had to cancel half their tour in 2016 due to singer Brian Johnson's risk of complete hearing loss. He has endured nine operations on his ears.  Huey Lewis cancelled his remaining 2018 tour dates due to losing most of his hearing suddenly.  He was diagnosed with Meniere's disease-- an inner ear disorder which can cause hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo. Sting, singer of The Police, has suffered hearing loss and tinnitus and became an advocate for hearing loss awareness and a supporter/ambassador for Hear the World Foundation, a foundation which provides children with untreated hearing loss audiological care in low income countries.

The most common hearing damage for musicians is Tinnitus-- a constant ringing in the ear when there's actually no sound present

There is no cure for tinnitus other than masking out the sound with background music or television. Pete Townshend of the Who has hearing loss and tinnitus in both ears which led him to help fund a non-profit hearing advocacy group called H.E.A.R. (Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers).  After every performance his tinnitus resurfaces, which has resulted in his inability to hear high frequencies.  Now he relies on computer systems and engineers to help him in the recording studio. 

What is considered safe noise

According to Dr. Carol Rousseau, a clinical audiologist, she states, "The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) considers a safe noise dose to be 85 decibels (dB) for eight hours a day, but for every 3-dB increase, that time period is cut in half.  The loudness levels at an AC/DC concert can range from 105 to 130dB.  At 105 DB, damage can occur after only about fifteen minutes of exposure.  Danger to the inner ear can occur instantaneous at 120 dBs", Hyperacusis (an increased sensitivity to volume) and Diplacusis (difficulties in pitch perception) are two conditions that can result from prolonged exposure to loud volumes of music, making it more difficult and challenging for musicians and singer to perform.

How to protect your hearing 

There are ways to help avoid hearing loss damage and to protect you from loud noise and music. 

• Avoid excessively loud noise for prolonged periods at a time
• Always wear ear plugs when exposed to high volumes of noise and loud music, whether or not you already suffer from hearing loss or tinnitus
• Consider location proximity to speakers when choosing a spot at a concert or loud nightclub
• Give yourself a 24 hour rest after loud noise exposure
• Have your hearing tested
• Remove ear wax

Long term damage of hearing loss is irreversible. 

MaxiAids offers products to help amplify sound and volume when hearing loss has become a reality.  Browse through our many hearing impaired products, hearing amplification devices, and products for the deaf and hearing impaired.  Help combat the frustrations, anxiety and challenges of hearing loss. -- Audrey Leonard

Seeing the art through touch and sound...

Tactile 3D technology is making art accessible to those with vision impairment, allowing the Blind and sight impaired to experience art of all kinds, including historical and ancient art and sculpture.

Now the blind and visually impaired can visualize what the art looks like by touch.  Museums all over the world are participating in touch tours and recreating famous art with special 3d machines, making these duplications in a highly detailed tactile way so that those who are blind can fully enjoy the art.  This has expanded a new world for sight impaired art lovers, creating a unique accessibility. Besides audio descriptions that are offered at most museums, verbal description and touch tours offer blind museum goers a chance to experience art through touch and sound, helping those with sight impairment to "see" and imagine the artist's creative intentions.  Allowing a sight impaired museum goer to understand the emotion and intention of the artist by touching the details of the art greatly enhances their whole museum experience.  

Along with verbal tours that the museum guide describes in great detail, touching actual sculptures and art paintings expands the knowledge and broadens the art encounter.  

John Olson, a photographer who started his career covering the Vietnam War, began his company, 3D Photoworks, in 2008.  Since then he's been perfecting a patented fine art printing process that will change the way blind people "see" art forever. With a team of 3D technicians and engineers, Olsen and his team came up with a way to convert any 2-dimensional painting, photo or drawing to a three-dimensional tactile art print, complete with touch-activated sensors that provide audio information about the artwork.  The sensors are embedded throughout the prints that when touched, activate the sound.  The prints have length, width, depth and texture-- capturing color and relief of an artist's brushstrokes.  Olsen demonstrated the technology at the National Federation of the Blind convention and took along a 3D copy of the “Mona Lisa,” in addition to “George Washington Crossing the Delaware.

Advocates for the blind are praising Olson’s invention as the greatest thing since the arrival of Braille, nearly 200 years ago. "When I experience a painting on my own without someone explaining it to me, that to me represents freedom, independence and equality.”--Lynn Jackson, an art lover who became blind at age 60.

Tactile and 3D paintings are enhancing the museum experience all over the world for the blind and visually impaired. "The Louvre in Paris was one of the first museums to set up a permanent gallery specifically for the visually impaired, opening its Tactile Gallery, where visitors can touch reproductions of art from its collection, in 1995. Since then, other museums have made accessibility for the blind a priority, too: the Denver Art Museum, Madrid’s Museo del Prado, and Florence’s Uffizi Gallery all have exhibitions that include touchable artworks. Meanwhile, the Museo Nacional de San Carlos in Mexico City also pioneered a concept of using collage to reproduce paintings that can be touched, according to the New York Times."  --Audrey Leonard

MaxiAids has been a provider for products that help enhance the lives of those with physical challenges.  Look to MaxiAids for products for the blind, low vision aids, blind accessories, low vision products, tactile products, and mobility products to safely move about, explore, create, and enjoy life to the fullest.