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6 Reasons Why Patients Choose Us

#1 - Advanced Audiological Care

You’ll be cared for by Erika Shakespeare, CCC-A and her team that specializes in pediatric and adult diagnostics and amplification. Erika is a pediatric audiology mentor and educator for pediatric audiologists across the country and is one of the most respected experts on pediatric audiology. Erika has worked with adults to help manage tinnitus and hearing loss since 2002. She is an expert in managing hearing loss and tinnitus, creating individual treatment plans with patients, not for patients.

Along with her team, you can be rest assured that your hearing health is being cared for by experts.

#2 - Caring for Thousands of Patients Since 1982

Having been rooted in the La Grande community for 38 years and having cared for thousands of patients, multiple generations of families, and a mix of ages, Audiology & Hearing Aid Associates are the hearing specialists that your friends, co-workers, and loved ones have turned to for nearly four decades.

#3 - You’ll Feel Instantaneously Comfortable

We have all walked into uncomfortable waiting rooms surrounded by ill people – your experience with Audiology & Hearing Aid Associates couldn’t be more different. You’ll instantly feel at ease and comfortable in our warm and inviting environment.

Wait until you see the purple sofa!

#4 - We're Not Tied to Any Manufacturer

If a situation arises where we discover that hearing aids would be beneficial to your hearing loss, we have the ability to choose the right hearing aids for you based on your unique circumstances, budget, and lifestyle, as we’re not tied to any one manufacturer – giving us full access to a large range of devices.

#5 - Our Unique Journey to Better Hearing

Your aim by working with us is to achieve better hearing. Through 38 years of experience, we have developed our own unique patient journey that drives you to the desired outcome as effectively and as seamlessly as possible.

#6 - Easy Parking and Accessibility

You don’t have to park in a big parking lot or have to walk far from your car to our office. With highly convenient parking and accessibility, it’s super easy to find us, park, and walk into our waiting room.
Audiology & Hearing Aid Associates' energetic team of audiologists and care coordinators sitting together
Larry Jacobson11/02/2019

Erica and her staff are well beyond AMAZING! Everyone there treats you more like a friend rather than a patient . I just received my new hearing aids and they are absolutely awesome. I'm hearing sounds I haven't heard in a long time. The best thing is when you have an appointment you will never feel rushed or pushed thru. I just can't say enough good things about these people. I will not go anyplace else. I highly recommend Erica and her staff. If this had a rating of 100 stars I would rate them at 100. It don't get any better than right here.

Meet Your Local Team

Erika Shakespeare, Owner and Audiologist at Audiology & Hearing Aid Associates

Erika Shakespeare

Owner/Audiologist
Tara Schmidt, Doctor of Audiology at Audiology & Hearing Aid Associates

Tara Schmidt

Doctor of Audiology
Sherry Cadwell, Patient Care Coordinator at Audiology & Hearing Aid Associates

Sherry Cadwell

Patient Care Coordinator
Janet Creel, Hearing Instrument Support Specialist at Audiology & Hearing Aid Associates

Janet Creel

Hearing Device Support
Emily Hill, Administrative Assistant at Audiology & Hearing Aid Associates

Emily Hill

Administrative Assistant
Macie

Macie

Pawdiologist
Wiggles

Mrs. Wiggles

Pawdiologist
Wednesday

Wednesday

Pawdiologist

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Erika’s Story

I’m Erika. I love learning about new technology, particularly with technology designed to help people hear and connect to their families, friends and community. I first learned about the Jabra Enhance Plus 18 months ago in a tech talk related to OTC hearing aids. OTC stands for “over-the-counter”; this was driven by the PCAST report (President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) that was published in 2016 and was rejuvenated by Biden’s Executive to the FDA to develop regulations and labeling on a new classification of non-prescription hearing aids that would be available to purchase by consumers without professional engagement.

The purpose was to introduce lower cost entry to hearing aids for consumers. This is opening a whole new pipeline of devices from manufacturers of consumer electronics to manufacturers of medical devices to get into the lucrative market of entry level amplification. Bose had launched their new “hearing aid” which was a terrible flop, it didn’t have rechargeability, it had a ton of feedback (whistling), it didn’t even have basic streaming features. Signia launched a product, Apple Air pods added transparency mode and developed an app to “test” your hearing to apply mild gain to your Air Pod Pros, and Resound’s research team partnered with GN’s consumer electronic group that makes Jabra products to develop a hybrid hearing aid/consumer electronic sometimes referred to as a Hearable, PSAP (Personal Sound Amplifier), or and OTC hearing aid. Other companies have come out with products that they are marketing as hearing aids, the FDA has been playing whack-a-mole with these illegally labeled products. Whatever you may call the widget, it is an electronic device that is not programmed by a licensed hearing health care professional.

I was awarded a slot to participate in a pilot project to evaluate the Jabra Enhance Plus product before it was released commercially to the public. I have been wearing the device for the last 10 days. I have about 4 pages of feedback for the developers for the app and also the device itself. Here is my pro/con list.

Pros: The size and fit. It doesn’t look anything like a hearing aid, it is like a small button Bluetooth or wireless earbud. There is nothing hanging out of the ear to catch on masks. The green, faded yellow and red indicator lights on the device and the charger are intuitive ways to alert to battery life. The little charging case holds a charge even when it is not plugged in. It is easily portable, fits great in a pocket of my purse so I have them with me. The streaming is pretty seamless. The app controls are deceivingly simple, it seems like there should be more, but it is really just the volume up and down. They were a lot more comfortable to wear while reclining and listening to streaming audio than other wireless earbuds that I have used. It was easy to switch to a call while streaming. They enhanced listening when I was watching TV.

Cons: The built-in personalization didn’t seem to customize the sound; The filter setting was something that I wanted to change frequently, but it is a buried feature in the app. The fit was sort of uncomfortable in one ear and the selection of domes were not adequate. The occlusion effect for my own body noises was significant. My voice sounded too far away for people on the other end of the phone call. The sound quality for phone calls and streaming audio was inferior to other wireless earbuds that I use. I struggled in noisy situations to hear other people over my own body sounds. They move a lot in my ears with talking. They don’t connect to my computer, so going between zoom meetings and phone calls or other activities was cumbersome and I have to switch devices. My overall assessment is that there is a place in the consumer electronic world for these cute little hearing enhancers, but they will not yet replace my wireless earbuds. I look forward to future software updates that will hopefully improve and expand usability (like connecting to my PC for zoom calls).

Tom’s Story
Tom was not as happy as Donna after his 10 days with the devices. He much preferred his own hearing aids. He did like that his mask never got caught on them. His biggest issue was that he got whistling from them when he turned them up loud enough for him to hear the TV. He did enjoy the streaming capabilities. He struggled the most with pairing the devices, which may have been because he used his Bluetooth a lot for other things and the Jabra devices did not seem to respond well to intermittent connectivity.
Donna’s Story
Donna wore the devices for 10-12 hours everyday for ten days. She loved how much better she heard in group settings and in conversations with friends and family. She mentioned that after a long day she did notice that her ears would get a little sore and she thought maybe a smaller prescription hearing aid would be better for her long term, but she thought these self fitting hearing aids were great and easy to use. She would definitely consider buying them and even had several of her friends ask where they could buy them.
Linda’s Story

Linda wore the Jabra Enhance Plus 5-6 hours a day. Mostly while watching TV. She loved how much easier it was to hear the dialogue on TV. She also enjoyed hearing her husband more easily while they were having conversations. She had little difficulty connecting the devices to her app, the most difficult part of the connection that Linda had was remembering her apple password. She was really impressed with the product and the price.

Beth Story

Beth wears the Jabra Enhance Plus about an hour a day, primarily for streaming while exercising. She loves the quality of the streaming for phone calls and listening to audio books. She tried the devices in a restaurant with friends, but really struggled to adapt to her own voice and thought that it was actually harder to focus on the voices she wanted to hear over some of the other environment sounds being amplified. She really didn’t find them helpful in the classroom like she had hoped, but she admitted that only tried them once in that setting.

Jan’s Story
I'm Jan. I have enjoyed being part of this new technology. After day two I did experience right ear canal discomfort and was not able to wear the device for a few days. I feel if the device was a little bit smaller it would be more comfortable for me. I felt muffled and my own voice was hollow. After a few days I didn't notice it as much. I am not totally comfortable with new technology but found the setup for Jabra to be easy. The charging was easy, and the hearing test was relatively easy. I have normal hearing, therefore did not experience a lot of amplification. I found the app was user friendly. I would recommend them to someone who had a mild to moderate hearing loss that could not afford hearing aids.