assistive listening devices (ALDs) for people with hearing loss
For general information about ALDs, this is the place to
be! If you're interested in information about specific devices or where
to buy one, please
visit the ALD portion of our Resource Directory.
What is an assistive listening device?
What Kinds of
ALDs Are There?
Who can benefit from an assistive listening device?
Where can I buy an assistive listening device?
Some people also include alerting devices in the ALD
category. These are things like visual smoke alarms, alarm clocks,
doorbells, etc. Click
here if you're interested in one of those.
June 2002 - New to Assistive Listening Devices? Or maybe you know
someone who could use a good introduction to the various devices on the
market. Here's a great primer from the League for
the Hard of Hearing. Note that they include alerting devices
in their definition of ALDs.
July 2002 Hearing Assistive Technology Research
April 2003 - Did you know that many tourist attractions
offer some sort of ALD for people with hearing loss? Here's a report
by full-time RVer Jan Christensen.
July 2003 - Here's
Cheryl Heppner's report covering an SHHH Convention workshop on how to
overcome noise, reverberation, and distance by using directional
microphones and ALDs.
December 2003 - Want to know how you can use ALDs to
hear better in the presence of background noise? Here's
Neil Bauman to tell you all about it!
August 2006 - Stethoscope Doubles as
Emergency ALD
August 2006 -
FM Made Friendly
October 2006 - IR
Listening Systems
January
2007 - Recycle Your Assistive Technologies
January
2007 - Able Talker Personal Communicator
April 2007 - Concert
Listening Technology for Deaf and Hard of Hearing
June 2007 - ALDs: It’s Not Just About
the Hearing Aid
June 2007 -
Some Religious
Organizations Consider Assistive Technology
September 2007 -
Hearing Assistance Technology: Integrating HATs into
Clinical Practice
December 2007 -
ALD Guide Available Free!
January 2008 -
Assistive Listening Systems - Ensuring the audio
experience for all
January 2008 - Comfort Audio Opens Doors in US
February 2008 - Requirements
for Assistive Listening Systems in Conference Facilities
February 2008 -
Choosing the ALD that's right for you!
March 2008 -
House technology
helps hearing-impaired lawmaker
May 2008 - Neckloops 101
June 2008 -
Stylish Bracelet Serves as Ears for People with
Hearing Loss
June 2008 - Bluetooth
and You - everything you wanted to know about how Bluetooth can help you
communicate!
January 2010 - Is your next
hearing aid an iPhone or iPod?
January 2010 - Personal FM Systems for Adults
February 2010 -
Check your wireless microphone!
February 2010 -
A Survey of Awareness of ALDs and Hearing
Difficulty in Places of Worship
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Assistive listening devices (ALDs) include a large variety of devices
designed to improve audibility in specific listening situations. Some
are designed to be used with hearing aids or cochlear implants (CIs),
while others are designed to be used alone. Many that are used in
conjunction with hearing aids require a telecoil (T-switch).
While there are a bewildering variety of microphones, pickups,
headphones, earphones, etc., that comprise assistive listening devices, they all have the same
goal: to emphasize the ONE signal that you are interested in. That
signal might be a faraway voice (e.g., a lecturer in an auditorium), or
a relatively near signal that gets lost in other noise (e.g., listening
to TV while others are talking nearby, or trying to converse in a restaurant).
Assistive listening devices can usually amplify a signal, but their primary purpose isn't to
make a signal louder. Rather, they place a pickup (microphone) close to
the sound source, so that it becomes louder compared to the other sounds
in the environment. Assistive listening devices improve your ability to hear because they make
the desired sound stand out from the background noise.
There are two basic types of assistive listening devices; those
intended for personal use and those intended for group
use.
Anyone with some amount of residual hearing can benefit from an assistive listening
device.
A person who is able to converse one-on-one in a quiet room without
lipreading would get a lot of benefit from assistive listening devices, because a properly used
ALD can duplicate that quality of sound. People with less residual
hearing will benefit from the use of an assistive listening device, because the device will
provide extra lipreading clues.
For additional information,
or to purchase an assistive listening device, see:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August
2006
This
month's ACEP News has a "Tricks of the Trade" article on "The Multipurpose
Stethoscope" that details some clever modifications to this time-honored
tool of physicians, including the following:
Occasionally, hearing-impaired patients arrive in the emergency department
without their hearing aid, making history-taking a challenge for the
practitioner... The stethoscope works both ways. The physician can speak
into the stethoscope's diaphragm piece, while the patient listens through
the stethoscope's earpieces. This technique provides the patient with a
temporary hearing aid while in the emergency department, minimizing the
risk of potential miscommunication.
We've also
seen the bell of the stethoscope used as a reflex hammer, a Child
Distracter, and occasionally, as a device for detecting heart sounds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October
2006
For
infrared (IR) listening systems, all market indicators point skyward.
Whether for assistive listening or language translation applications,
sales prospects simply couldn't be rosier. The reasons? First, with
populations aging, more people are developing hearing
impairments. In addition, with new legislation in some
jurisdictions requiring audio description for the visually impaired, a
single-channel system will no longer suffice. A third factor:
Immigration patterns are creating more multilingual communities, which,
in turn, boosts the need for second- (or even third-) language
translations. Finally, post-9/11 security consciousness has prompted a
move to keep all government proceedings strictly contained within four
opaque walls. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 2007
Assistive listening devices (ALDs) often provide a
positive impact on people's lives, while also introducing them to the
value of hearing care products or completing a hearing care package that
improves the patient experience and increases satisfaction. "A
model that incorporates communication technology besides just the
hearing aid, and that considers a patient's lifestyle, can provide a
complete package of solutions," says Michele Ahlman, president of
ClearSounds® Communications, Burr Ridge, Ill. Today,
more than ever before, there are more ALDs available to meet users'
specific needs and situations. "Hearing loss is often like a
fingerprint," Ahlman says. As such, each user needs to find the
product that works best for him or her—the one that fills their
specific hearing gaps. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 2007
Approximately 30 million people in the United
States report having hearing difficulty (NIDCD, 2007), representing 10% of
the current population of the United States (Kochkin, 1999). While
amplification in the form of hearing instruments represents a viable
option to individuals with hearing loss, a significant percentage of the
population postpones using hearing instruments. Historically, the hearing
instrument market penetration has been low, yielding approximately 22% (Kochkin,
2001). While the market penetration has remained relatively flat,
first-time hearing-instrument-user purchase trends have significantly
declined over the past several decades. For example, during the 1980s, 60%
of the hearing instrument market was comprised of first-time buyers,
whereas data in 2001 shows that the percentage of first-time buyers fell
to 45% (Strom, 2002). Even with relatively flat market penetration, if
first-time hearing instrument buyers comprise a smaller percentage of the
current market as compared to the recent past, fewer consumers are
actually pursing hearing instruments as an option for assistive technology
. One approach to expanding the hearing instrument market involves
offering communication solutions in the form of Hearing Assistance
Technology (HAT). The purpose of this article is to address some of the
barriers to HAT integration, to review current HAT dispensing trends, and
to offer practice solutions on how to generate product awareness for a
minimal investment of time and money
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2007
Demystifying Hearing Assistance Technology: A
Guide For Service Providers and Consumers.
Are you looking for information on hearing loss
and assistive technology delivered in a user-friendly format? Written by
an experienced trainer on the use of hearing assistance technology and two
audiologists (one of whom is a cochlear implant user himself), this book
provides information on hearing loss; hearing aid and hearing testing
terminology; and the range of assistive technology for face-to-face
communication, telecommunication, and environmental alerts. An extensive
resource section is included. The authors' goal is to help readers
understand the functional impact of hearing loss and the range of
communication access options that are available.
The book is available in pdf format from the
PEPNet Dissemination Center at http://pdc.pepnet.org and click on
Downloads (item # 1221). It is also available from the author for a
limited time. Email davisc@wou.edu to request a free copy (be sure to
include your mailing address). This product was developed with funds from
the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and
Rehabilitative Services.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2008
Whenever assistive listening systems (ALS) are
mentioned in the media, there is usually some reference to the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 (see the sidebar "Systems Contractors
and the ADA.") The ADA was passed to ensure equal access to public places
where goods and services are offered, and its scope covers a variety of
disabilities, including people with hearing loss. At that time, the
majority of public users for ALS were in the motion picture and live
theater markets, and in such places, the ADA laws are designed to work
well. Interestingly, the house of worship market may have felt a greater
impact from the use of ALS products, despite the fact that the ADA laws do
not implicitly require the use of such equipment, as houses of worship are
considered private spaces. The benefits of these systems are fairly
obvious, and it's rather simple for contractors to add ALS in many
different venues; however, ALS technology is often left out of the bid
specification during the design process. These systems are not at all
complex and are generally easy to install, yet more attention should be
paid to ALS and the benefits they provide. The additional income from the
installation and sale of ALS-related gear offers another excellent reason
for contractors to keep these in mind for their next install.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2008
We're fortunate to have a rapidly expanding inventory
of assistive listening devices (ALDs) to help us hear in a variety of
situations. But the downside of all this equipment is that it's becoming
more difficult to select the best device(s) for a particular individual.
Here's a tool that guides a person to the appropriate choice based on
their use of CIs, hearing aids, or nothing, and some of the
characteristics of the devices they wear.
This tool was developed for the 2008 Audiology NOW conference, but is
really useful for anyone struggling with ALD choices.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 2008
The "Vibering" consist of two rings and a
wristwatch. The two rings are worn on both hands. They are designed to act
as the ears, by listening for sounds coming from behind, while at the same
time determining the distance and position, and vibrate according to the
source. While the wristwatch collect and identifies the sound wave and
presents the info to the user, the watch surprisingly is also programmed
to listen for specific phrases such as "excuse me", when the user's name
is being called, and most importantly, a car's horn. It certainly helps
the deaf to move around more easily and normally. By the way, the
bracelets look stylish, too. Nobody would think it was a device for the
deaf. However, the release date and price are yet to be known.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2010
Under a new FCC rule, anyone who uses a wireless
microphone that operates in the 700 MHz Band must stop operating their
wireless microphone no later than June 12, 2010. All users of 700 MHz
Band wireless microphones (and similar devices) - including theaters,
churches, schools, conference centers, theme parks, and musicians -- will
need to retune (where possible) or replace their wireless microphone
equipment with other microphone devices no later than June 12, 2010. This
action helps complete an important component of the DTV Transition by
clearing the 700 MHz band to enable the rollout of communications
services for public safety and the deployment of next generation 4G
wireless devices for consumers. For further information, please
visit
the website
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2010
Large halls with soaring spaces help create a
sense of the divine in places of worship. While acoustic reflections,
scattering, and long reverberation times may benefit liturgical music,
these features also pose significant challenges for listeners with hearing
impairments. Primary among these challenges are difficulty understanding
the speech of worship leaders and other congregants, hearing the music and
lyrics clearly, and remaining connected to the worship experience. Church
is one of the most commonly identified situations of concern for persons
with hearing loss.1 Thus, places of worship would seem to be amenable
environments to employ assistive listening devices (ALDs).
Full Story
