> Just speak clearly. ---
I finally got (very expensive) hearing aids, and made several trips back to the audiologist to have them tuned. Then I wound up not wearing them, because most people think they're speaking English, but it's some kind of mumbly slobbergobble with incorrect, missing, or mispronounced words. The aids just turned "mufuh dogga baytaaa" into "MUFUH DOGGA BAYTAAA."
Yeah, I heard that just fine without electronic assistance.
Paying attention to how often people with "normal" hearing said "what?" to each other was a revelation. Yes, I have a problem. But it's a small problem; the big problem is that a large number of people may as well be trying to communicate by interpretive farting and tap-dancing, because "the words what are coming out of their mouth" are mostly gibberish.