chennai there are apps to play with there are apps to learn and now comes an app that helps those with hearing problems doctors at the madras ent research foundation merf along with some european experts have designed listen app that works as a hearing aid compatible with a mobile phone whats more it works on bluetooth nearly 6 of the indian population has different degrees of hearing loss but only 10 of them have access to a hearing aid the mobile phone app aims to bridge this gap merf institute of speech and hearing principal dr ranjith rajeswaran said the reason that many people do not use a hearing aid is lack of accessibility affordability and sustainability but with this application anyone who has a hearing impairment can have access to a hearing aid at a fraction of the cost he said he added that the software comes with a music player and television option which would be compatible in movie theatres the software was launched at the closing day of a fiveday workshop on vocal arts and sciences which was aimed at training speech pathologists in helping voice professionals and singers preserve their voice singer t n seshagopalan who was the chief guest of the programme pointed out that there is lack of awareness about voice culture among singers in india and efforts should be taken to conserve the voice which is the backbone of their career the programme also saw the launch of another application the classroom app designed for school children who have a hearing problem almost 80 of school children perform poorly in academics as they have problems listening in class with this application they will not be distracted as other environmental noises get filtered through the hearing device and only the teachers voice that comes through a microphone gets amplified said merf founder dr mohan kameshwaran studies have shown that an assistive listening device of this kind has the capacity to improve the academic performance of a child by 60 in 10 months said the doctor