Soundly CEO pushes hearing aids on Roblox

Roblox players have millions of options for customizing their avatars, but before August 26, the platform had just one Roblox cosmetic hearing aid available in the sandbox game platform’s Avatar Shop.

Blake Cadwell, the CEO and Founder of a hearing health company called Soundly, noticed the lack of hearing aid cosmetics and noted that, in comparison, there were more than a thousand glasses options in the Roblox shop. Cadwell, who started using hearing aids when he was 30, soon embarked on a mission to bring more options to the platform.
“When the 50M+ kids that play Roblox each day search for hearing aids on the platform, they should see designs that celebrate who they are in a bold and colorful way that matches the platform,” Cadwell shares in a blog post.
In the blog post, Cadwell’s team notes that children who have hearing loss rarely see hearing aids in high-end stores, or on celebrities. The lack of representation makes it seem as though hearing loss is rare, he noted, even though that’s not actually the case. The World Health Organization estimates 34 million children worldwide have deafness or hearing loss.
The Soundly team collaborated with Day One Agency and Roblox 3D modeler 0929lego to release the new line.
“We wanted the collection to be as playful as the community on Roblox, and we wanted the designs to be bold and unapologetic,” Cadwell says in the post.
The team went through numerous ideas before settling on a line of six hearing aid design concepts, which 0929lego then brought to life on the platform.
By offering bright and colorful ones for sale as an accessory on Roblox’s marketplace, the team seeks to send a message that supports diversity and inclusion for people who are hard of hearing. Some of the options include Pink Fuzz, Smiley, and Lightning Bolt.
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