I have worn noise-canceling headphones many times throughout my life. As an autistic diagnosed in early toddlerhood, I’ve relied on sensory accommodations across every stage of my life. So, when I settled into the stands for my first undergraduate football game at the University of California, Berkeley, I expected the technology to do its job. I expected relief from the roar of the crowd.

Then came the cannon shot.

At Berkeley football games, a ceremonial cannon is fired every time the team scores. When it went off, the blast cut straight through the headphones—amplified, sharper, and more jarring than anything I had heard without them. I got the fright of my life and came close to a meltdown. I’ve been wary of noise-canceling headphones ever since. That moment stayed with me not because it was loud, but because it was unexpected. The headphones didn’t fail because they were defective. They failed because the environment didn’t behave the way the technology assumes it will.

Active noise cancellation works by sampling environmental noise through microphones, analyzing its frequency and timing, and generating an opposing “anti-noise” signal. This process is highly effective for........

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