In Ohio, the Hearing Aid Dealer and Hearing Aid Fitter licenses, issued by the State Speech and Hearing Professionals Board under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4747, authorize the holder to measure and test human hearing, select and adapt hearing aids, make earmold impressions, and sell hearing aids. Three examination components stand behind those licenses: the International Licensing Examination (ILE) written examination administered by the International Hearing Society (IHS), the Board’s written Ohio laws and rules examination, and the IHS Practical Examination. The PassProfessor Ohio Hearing Aid Dealer / Hearing Aid Fitter program prepares candidates for that three-part qualifying examination. The companion exam guide at /ohio-hearing-instrument-specialist-exam-guide/ works through the same verified facts in greater depth.
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What these licenses certify
Ohio licenses the work itself. Under Ohio Revised Code section 4747.01, the practice of dealing in or fitting hearing aids means the sale of a hearing aid together with the measurement and testing of human hearing by means of an audiometer or by any other means for the purpose of selecting, adapting, and selling a hearing aid, and it includes the making of impressions for earmolds. No person may engage in that practice, advertise it, or train toward it in Ohio without first being licensed or permitted under Chapter 4747. The Hearing Aid Dealer and the Hearing Aid Fitter are the two license types the chapter provides, and both rest on the same qualifying examination.
The license certifies a dispensing practitioner, not a diagnostician. The examined work is the honest measurement of hearing, the correct reading of the audiogram that measurement produces, the selection and adaptation of an instrument to that record, and a sale conducted inside Ohio’s consumer-protection rules — receipts, referrals, and truthful advertising among them. Candidates who prepare as if the examinations tested product knowledge alone under-prepare for the half of the qualifying examination that tests performance: pure tone and speech audiometry, masking, audiogram evaluation, and earmold impression technique, each carried out to a standard an examiner can observe.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | Ohio Hearing Aid Dealer / Hearing Aid Fitter, the licenses for practitioners who measure and test hearing, select, adapt and sell hearing aids, and make earmold impressions in Ohio |
| Licensing authority | State Speech and Hearing Professionals Board (Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4747) |
| Examination | Three components, all required: (1) the written International Licensing Examination (ILE) administered by the International Hearing Society (IHS); (2) the Board’s written Ohio laws and rules examination; and (3) the IHS Practical Examination, adopted by the Board effective August 1, 2024, replacing the Board’s own practical examination |
| Passing standard | No passing score is published in the Board and statute sources used for this page, so none is printed here; candidates confirm the current standard with the Board |
| Eligibility | At least 18 years of age, free of contagious or infectious disease, and successful passage of the qualifying examination; training is undertaken under a Hearing Aid Dealer’s and Fitter’s Trainee Permit, held under the supervision of a licensed hearing aid dealer or fitter |
| License term | Valid from issuance until December 31 of the following even-numbered year; renewed biennially by December 31 of each even-numbered year with 20 hours of Board-approved continuing education in each two-year period |
| Administrator note | PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the State Speech and Hearing Professionals Board or with the International Hearing Society |
Not the trainee permit, and not the audiologist license: three Ohio authorizations that are routinely confused
Chapter 4747 and its neighbouring chapter create three distinct positions, and confusing them is the commonest starting error in this field. The Trainee Permit — formally the Hearing Aid Dealer’s and Fitter’s Trainee Permit under section 4747.10 — is the training tier, not a license: it authorizes practice only under the supervision of a licensed hearing aid dealer or fitter, it expires one year from first issuance, and it may be renewed once. The Hearing Aid Dealer and Hearing Aid Fitter licenses are the full authorizations this program addresses, and neither may be issued until the holder has passed the qualifying examination. The audiologist license under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4753 sits outside Chapter 4747 altogether: section 4747.15(C) exempts a licensed audiologist from Chapter 4747 licensure, as it exempts a practicing physician licensed by the State Medical Board and a person who measures hearing without making a sale. A candidate training toward the dealer or fitter license is on the Chapter 4747 route, and the audiologist exemption does not shorten it.
What the examination covers
Ohio law fixes the territory before any examining body writes an item. Section 4747.08 requires the qualifying examination to be a thorough testing of the knowledge required for the proper selecting, fitting, and sale of hearing aids — expressly without requiring a medical or surgical education — consisting of written and practical portions covering, at minimum, eight areas: (A) basic physics of sound; (B) the anatomy and physiology of the human ear; (C) the function and purpose of hearing aids; (D) pure tone audiometry, including air conduction and bone conduction testing; (E) live voice or recorded voice speech audiometry, including speech reception threshold testing and speech discrimination testing; (F) masking techniques; (G) recording and evaluation of audiograms and speech audiometry to determine proper selection and adaptation of hearing aids; and (H) earmold impression techniques. The three examination components divide that territory as follows.
The ILE written examination (IHS). The International Licensing Examination is the national written component, administered by the International Hearing Society. It carries the shared professional core the statute describes — acoustics, ear anatomy and physiology, hearing aid function, audiometric testing and interpretation — at the depth expected of a practitioner who will test and fit without supervision once licensed.
The Ohio laws and rules written examination (the Board). Ohio examines its own law separately. Chapter 4747, the Board’s rules in Ohio Administrative Code Chapter 4747-1, the receipt the licensee must furnish every person supplied with a hearing aid, the duty — when dealing with a child of sixteen or under — to ascertain whether an otolaryngologist has examined the child and to recommend that examination where it has not taken place, the prohibited acts, and the grounds on which the Board may revoke, suspend, place on probation, or refuse to issue or renew are all examinable Ohio content that no national examination covers.
The IHS Practical Examination. The practical component tests the doing: audiometric technique, masking, audiogram work, and earmold impressions performed rather than described. The Board adopted the IHS Practical Examination effective August 1, 2024, replacing its own practical examination, so candidates now meet one practical standard — the IHS standard — administered under the Board’s qualifying-examination authority in section 4747.08.
What makes this examination demanding
Three features make the Ohio route harder than any single component suggests. First, the candidate must pass three distinct components set by two different authorities — a national examining body and the state board — and strength in one does not compensate for weakness in another; the Ohio laws and rules examination in particular rewards only candidates who have actually read Chapter 4747 and the Board’s rules. Second, the practical examination tests technique under observation: pure tone thresholds, speech audiometry, and masking are procedures with correct sequences, and an earmold impression is a physical artefact an examiner can judge — neither can be answered from recognition memory the way a written item can. Third, the statutory territory is deliberately practical rather than medical: section 4747.08 frames the examination around selecting, fitting, and selling well, so items turn on what the fitter does with a record, a client, and an instrument, not on diagnosis.
The route, in order
The route runs: enter training under a Trainee Permit — apply to the Board and meet the permit criteria of section 4747.10: at least eighteen years of age, holder of a diploma from an accredited high school or a certificate of high school equivalence, and free of contagious or infectious disease, with the Board issuing within thirty days of a properly completed application and fee — practise only under the supervision of a licensed hearing aid dealer or fitter while the permit runs, remembering that the permit expires one year from first issuance and may be renewed once — pass all three components of the qualifying examination: the ILE written examination, the Ohio laws and rules written examination, and the IHS Practical Examination — then apply for the Hearing Aid Dealer or Hearing Aid Fitter license itself, which the Board issues to an applicant who is at least eighteen, free of contagious or infectious disease, and has successfully passed the qualifying examination, with the criminal records check Chapter 4747 requires of initial applicants completed as part of that application. Ohio also licenses under Chapter 4796 for an applicant who holds a license in another state, or who holds the work experience or certification that chapter describes from a state that does not issue the license — that universal-licensure route is the Board’s to assess, and it does not displace the qualifying examination for the ordinary in-state route described here.
Staying licensed: renewal and the working license
The Ohio license runs on a two-year cycle. A license is valid from issuance until December 31 of the even-numbered year that follows issuance — a license issued less than one hundred days before that date runs to the December 31 of the next even-numbered year — and renewal falls due biennially not later than December 31 of each even-numbered year. Renewal requires the renewal application, the fee, and proof of not less than twenty hours of continuing professional education approved by the Board during each two-year period; Board rules add that at least two of the twenty hours relate to ethics, and that for a hearing aid fitter at least ten hours are specific to the measurement and testing of human hearing, the making of impressions for earmolds, or selecting and adapting hearing aids, with continuing education also creditable when provided or certified by the International Hearing Society, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, or the American Academy of Audiology. No examination is required as a condition of renewing an expired license where renewal is sought within two years of expiry. In practice the license must be displayed conspicuously in the holder’s office or place of business, with a duplicate at each additional location; the Board must be notified in writing of every place of practice and of any change; every person supplied with a hearing aid must receive the Board-compliant receipt; and the holder remains subject to the disciplinary grounds in section 4747.12 — fraud or misrepresentation in a sale, misleading advertising, fitting or selling without first using the appropriate procedures and instruments, gross incompetence or negligence, and violation of the chapter or the Board’s rules among them.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
Built to Ohio’s three components, component by component. The program is organised on the qualifying examination as Ohio actually administers it — the ILE written core, the Ohio laws and rules examination, and the IHS Practical Examination — with the eight statutory areas of section 4747.08 carried through each component, because Ohio examines the same territory in written and performed form. Audiometry, masking, and audiogram evaluation are taught as procedures with sequences and checks, and earmold impression work is taught as technique, not description.
Ohio law, taught as its own subject. The laws and rules component is where an otherwise strong candidate most often arrives unprepared, because no national syllabus covers Chapter 4747. The program teaches the chapter and the Board’s rules as the Board examines them: who must be licensed, what the trainee may and may not do, the receipt and the child-referral duties, prohibited acts, discipline, renewal, and continuing education.
Independence, stated plainly. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the State Speech and Hearing Professionals Board or with the International Hearing Society, and this program is not a Board or IHS course. Completing it confers no license and satisfies no part of the qualifying examination; the Board alone licenses, and candidates apply, train under permit, and test through the Board and IHS.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The Ohio Hearing Aid Dealer / Hearing Aid Fitter program is in the works as PassProfessor expands its catalog of health examination preparation, and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program. No date is promised, because the program will open when it meets the standard described above, not before.
Frequently asked questions
Who licenses hearing aid dealers and fitters in Ohio?
The State Speech and Hearing Professionals Board, under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4747.
What examinations must an Ohio applicant pass?
Three components: the written International Licensing Examination (ILE) administered by the International Hearing Society (IHS), the Board’s written Ohio laws and rules examination, and the IHS Practical Examination, which the Board adopted effective August 1, 2024, replacing its own practical examination.
What does Ohio law say the qualifying examination covers?
Section 4747.08 of the Ohio Revised Code sets eight areas: basic physics of sound; anatomy and physiology of the human ear; the function and purpose of hearing aids; pure tone audiometry including air and bone conduction testing; live or recorded speech audiometry including speech reception threshold and speech discrimination testing; masking techniques; recording and evaluation of audiograms and speech audiometry for proper selection and adaptation of hearing aids; and earmold impression techniques.
Is the Trainee Permit a license?
No. The Hearing Aid Dealer’s and Fitter’s Trainee Permit is the training authorization. It allows practice only under the supervision of a licensed hearing aid dealer or fitter, expires one year from first issuance, and may be renewed once. The license itself requires passage of the qualifying examination.
Who may hold a Trainee Permit?
An applicant who is at least eighteen years of age, holds a diploma from an accredited high school or a certificate of high school equivalence, and is free of contagious or infectious disease, on a properly completed application with the Board’s fee.
Are audiologists required to hold the Chapter 4747 license?
No. Section 4747.15(C) exempts an audiologist licensed under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4753 from Chapter 4747 licensure, as it exempts a practicing physician licensed by the State Medical Board and a person who measures hearing where the measurement does not result in a sale by that person.
How long does the Ohio license last, and what does renewal require?
The license runs until December 31 of the following even-numbered year and is renewed biennially by December 31 of each even-numbered year, with not less than twenty hours of Board-approved continuing professional education in each two-year period — including, under Board rules, at least two hours relating to ethics and, for a hearing aid fitter, at least ten hours specific to hearing measurement and testing, earmold impressions, or selecting and adapting hearing aids.
What score passes the Ohio qualifying examination?
The Board and statute sources used for this page do not publish a passing score, so this page prints none. Candidates should confirm the current passing standard with the State Speech and Hearing Professionals Board and with IHS for the components IHS administers.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Ohio Board or with IHS?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider. The State Speech and Hearing Professionals Board alone licenses hearing aid dealers and fitters in Ohio, and this program is not a Board or IHS course.
When does enrollment open?
The program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address on this page and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program.