A professional who determines type and degree of hearing impairment and implements habilitation and rehabilitation services for patient. Responsibilities include:

• Administers and interprets variety of tests, such as air and bone conduction, and speech reception and discrimination tests, to determine type and degree of hearing impairment, site of damage, and effects on comprehension and speech.
• Evaluates test results in relation to behavioral, social, educational, and medical information obtained from patients, families, teachers, speech pathologists and other professionals to determine communication problems related to hearing disability.
• Plans and implements prevention, habilitation, or rehabilitation services, including hearing aid selection and orientation, counseling, auditory training, lip reading, language habilitation, speech conservation, and other treatment programs developed in consultation with speech pathologist and other professionals.
• May refer patient to physician or surgeon if medical treatment is determined necessary.
• May conduct research in physiology, pathology, biophysics, or psychophysics of auditory systems, or design and develop clinical and research procedures and apparatus.
• May act as consultant to educational, medical, legal, and other professional groups.
• May teach art and science of audiology and direct scientific projects.