Sir,

Nowadays malingering (faking hearing ability for financial assistance) cases are more in the Audiology Clinic. All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH), Mysuru, is one of the Nodal Centres to give hearing disability certificate.

On an average in a week, 11 of 70 cases (15%) fake their hearing status who seek for hearing disability certificate.  This letter is to make them aware about hearing evaluation that we conduct at our clinic identifies true hearing ability.

According to Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, eligibility to avail concession/ benefit from the hearing disability certificate is provided to individuals who have permanent hearing loss greater or equal to 60 dB HL (decibels Hearing Level) in the better ear. To avail hearing disability certificate, a hearing evaluation has to be performed on patient who seeks for it.

Those hearing impaired individuals whose hearing disability in a better ear ranges from 60% and above get a monitory benefit/ concessions and apply for job under hearing impaired quota.

To obtain these benefits, a few hearing impaired individuals are faking to have more problem in their hearing ability. In our clinic, we administer behavioural tests to assess their hearing ability. Behavioural tests are those which require patient’s active participation to assess their hearing ability.

Unfortunately, those hearing impaired individuals who fake their hearing ability sets a loudness yardstick. That is, they respond only to a sufficiently loud sound. For such cases, we administer an objective test to identify true hearing ability. Objective tests tell us their genuine hearing ability even though client fakes their hearing ability just for financial assistance.

– Dr. N. Hemanth, Reader in Audiology, AIISH, Mysuru, 10.12.2019

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