Audiogram

An audiogram is a graph of a person's hearing thresholds measured across a range of frequencies — typically 250 Hz to 8 kHz — plotted separately for each ear. Thresholds are expressed in decibels hearing level (dB HL) relative to the expected threshold of a young, healthy ear, and a hearing profile is described by its *shape* (flat, sloping, notched, reverse-slope) as well as its magnitude. Audiograms are the clinical primary record of hearing status and are used to prescribe hearing aids, fit cochlear implants, drive accessibility simulations, and define standard hearing-loss categories (mild, moderate, severe, profound). Two people with the same average hearing loss can have very different audiograms and therefore very different accessibility needs — which is why accessibility practice rarely reduces hearing loss to a single number.