How people with hearing impairment in New Zealand use the Internet to obtain information about their hearing health

The aim of this study was to explore if and how people with hearing impairment in New Zealand are using the Internet to find hearing related information. Eleven participants with various degrees of hearing impairment completed three questionnaires relating to their hearing impairment and Internet use. Each partook in an Internet search task requiring them to answer set questions related to hearing impairment. During this task they were asked a combination of closed-set and open-set questions about their decision-making and opinions about different websites. A majority of the participants had previously used the Internet to find hearing related information and their processes for choosing and evaluating websites were similar to those of participants in studies of other health-related industries. These findings may help to provide further understanding of how hearing-related information on the Internet could affect the audiology industry and what considerations may be important for those wishing to develop appropriate hearing-related websites.