By David Halbout
My wife Nathalie and I are both artisans, originally from Normandy, France, now living in New Jersey. I design and make furniture and Nathalie works with textiles.
David Halbout designed a face mask to be more easily used with hearing aids.
When the pandemic started affecting our New York-New Jersey area, we watched as local hospitals were in dire need of PPE (personal protective equipment). We wanted to use our talents to help, so we started making fabric face masks with ties/elastic around the head. The ties around the head are preferred in a healthcare setting, as they do not place pressure on the ears and can be worn for long shifts. After donating hundreds of masks, we began to offer them for sale through our existing company, French Fix, based in Red Bank, New Jersey.
From feedback we received, we discovered that many people were buying our masks to wear at work for long hours. We also discovered that the majority of our customers used hearing aids. They wrote to us saying that they found the elastic around the head a nice alternative to ear loops, although they suggested that we tweak the design to improve how to put the mask on and take it off without affecting hearing aids that sit in and on the ear.
While the pandemic has affected all of us, from these comments we realized how wearing a mask presented unique challenges for people who use hearing aids. We heard stories about how many people improvised to make the face masks better stay on. Some people were using “ear savers” to extend the elastic behind the head, others were sewing buttons onto headbands and then attaching the ear loops to them, while still others were employing DIY contraptions so the ear loops stayed off the ears.
One day we received a message from a parent of a young man who has a hearing loss. She said that her son struggled with his mask, as it was difficult to manipulate while putting it on without disturbing his hearing aids. He needed to stretch the elastic to put it around his neck and at times it would get entangled with his hearing aids, and the hearing aids would come flying out! Her suggestion to us was to make the elastic longer to ease putting the mask on.
So we put on our design thinking caps: How could we make the straps long enough so they would not interfere with the hearing aids—and at the same time snug enough so they don’t fall off the head? We eventually had an “aha!” moment: Make the long straps adjustable!
As soon as we perfected the design, we sent the mask to the young man. Within days we received a heartwarming email from his mother. The new mask was easy to put on and take off and she was overjoyed: ”This mask works perfectly. My son thanks you for it. Please make sure to add this offering to your website. Many thanks again.”
We feel honored that we were able to serve our community and make the lives of so many people a little easier as we all face this new normal together.
A sound engineer and furniture artisan, David Halbout co-founded French Fix LLC with his wife Nathalie d’Idris, a textile artist. He also teaches woodworking at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Their work focuses on sustainable, environmentally friendly materials and practices. For more, see frenchfixllc.com or their Etsy store.
