One of the most serious issues plaguing the hearing-impaired is their inability to use a standard alarm clock or alarm clock radio. Either they can't hear the alarm or it has to be set so loud that it becomes a nuisance to other people living in the house, if not the neighborhood. Fortunately, Clarity, one of America's top manufacturers of products for the deaf and hard of hearing, has come up with a way to address this need with their Clarity 600 Wake Assure Alarm Clock. Although their alarm is one of the loudest available in the market at over 85 decibels (around as loud as an idling bulldozer or a lawnmower), that is not what makes the Wake Assure unique. If you don't want to disturb others with your alarm clock, you can use the bed shaker attachment. The bed shaker is a Frisbee-shaped device that you can slip under your pillow and instead of the alarm going off, it will vibrate, waking you up without disturbing the person sleeping beside you or others sleeping in an adjoining room. If the bed shaker is not strong enough for you, you can replace it with a stronger unit. And if the shaker and alarm is still not enough to wake you up, you can attach a lamp to the Wake Assure that will flash brightly on and off and is guaranteed to wake even the deepest sleeper. If you absolutely have to, you can even use the alarm, the flashing lamp and the shaker simultaneously. It should also be noted that unlike other alarm clocks where the alarm begins softly then gets progressively louder, the alarm starts out loud and remains consistently loud. Many users have said this is an advantage, since with the other type of alarm clock they would unconsciously press the snooze button before the alarm got loud.

The Wake Assure has other features that make it attractive even to those who are not hearing impaired. It has an extra-large 1.8" front LCD display that makes it easy to read the time, particularly in the morning when you are still groggy. You can also adjust the tone easily with the convenient tone control knob. If you're leaving and there'll be no one in the house, you can use the security timer function to turn the lamp on and off randomly several times between 6 pm and 11 pm. And if your area is subject to periodic power outrages and you are concerned that a blackout will disturb your alarm clock settings, the Wake Assure has a 9 volt battery backup function. However, when the clock is running on battery power, it will not display the current time. And if you're using the clock outside of the US and Canada, make sure that the unit is plugged on first before installing the batteries, otherwise your alarm clock could be late by as much as four minutes. The Wake Assure runs on a standard 120 volt electrical outlet and is extremely easy to set up. If you follow the instructions in the user's manual, the alarm will be ready to use in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, unlike other brands of alarm clock, it does not have an alarm clock radio variant.