Hearing Aids Alone Won't Do the Trick

By Stephen O. Frazier

Editor: Most people with significant hearing loss are devoted fans of telecoils and induction loops, while many hearing aid dispensers and audiologists routinely fail to inform their clients about this wonderful technology. Here's Steve Frazier with his thoughts on this topic. Steve is the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) State Coordinator for New Mexico. This article is part of the Loop New Mexico Initiative of the Hearing Loss Association of Albuquerque, and is reprinted with Steve's kind permission.

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Othel Moore is hard of hearing. When she moved to Albuquerque, she started attending services at Christ United Methodist Church but says, "I never heard anything in the service." Even with hearing aids, she could not understand what was being said.

Then Christ United installed an induction loop system and, simply by using the telecoils in her hearing aids, she could hear and she could understand. Moore said of the loop/telecoil technology, "It's fantastic- I can hear everything going on."

Like Moore, many of the hard of hearing- 10 percent of the public and increasing at a faster rate than the general population- need more than hearing aids to really hear and understand in some settings. Unlike eyesight returned to 20/20 by glasses, hearing aids don't return hearing to "normal."

What's often needed is a variety of products and services beyond hearing aids and, unfortunately, they are not always discussed by hearing care professionals when they dispense hearing aids.

There are many very capable, caring hearing-care providers but a study found a substantial number of them don't follow guidelines of the American Academy of Audiology. The majority don't tell clients about the world of assistive devices available to supplement hearing aids. Less than half even make certain clients understand how the telecoil in hearing aids can help them hear on the phone. Many hearing aid wearers aren't even told they have telecoils.

This problem is so prevalent that one state, Arizona, has a new law mandating that providers instruct their clients in the applications and use of the telecoil.

So, what is this technology that's so routinely ignored by hearing care providers? A telecoil picks up electromagnetic signals from an induction loop, which is connected to an amplifier and microphone, a TV set, or some other electronic sound source. A loop can circle a chair, a room or an entire home, and anyone with a telecoil equipped hearing aid can pick up the signal from anywhere within that loop. Small neck loops, operating on the same principle, work with cell phones, iPods and other devices.

Because the microphones in the hearing aids are normally turned off when using telecoils, the only sound comes from the loop's signal. Background noises are not amplified, intelligibility of spoken words is enhanced and the hearing aids correct the sound for that particular person's hearing loss.

Induction loop technology is the sound system of choice for many hard-of-hearing people. With such a system, all they have to do is flip a switch. They don't need to be near the sound source or facing it. When used with a TV set in the home, the devices allow the wearer to hear and understand programming while leaving the volume low enough that others don't complain.

Loop systems are relatively inexpensive, easily installed, and require little or no maintenance.

If loops and telecoils are so great, why don't hearing care providers tell clients about them? Why don't they tell clients they could hear in church, at Popejoy Hall, at the Hispanic Cultural Center and many other venues without the hassle of borrowing an infrared headset (probably with dead batteries) that doesn't correct sound like hearing aids do? As stated earlier, there are many very capable, caring hearing care providers but there are also many who may be capable but possibly not as caring and conscientious as they could be.

Short of a law requiring negligent hearing care providers to really provide hearing care (as is the case in Arizona), it's up to those with hearing loss to learn about products and strategies that improve not only their ability to hear, but their quality of their life and that of those around them.

It's up to the hard of hearing, their families and friends, to ask providers what's available besides the hearing aids they've just dispensed; to go to agencies like the Commission for Deaf and Hard of Hearing for guidance in dealing with hearing loss. To go on the Internet and investigate the Hearing Loss Association of America- the national organization that the local HLAAbq is affiliated with. They have a quarterly magazine that's filled with articles on hearing issues.

In short, if your hearing care provider doesn't do his or her job, take charge yourself. Learn all you can about products and strategies that can improve the ability to hear. You might, also, think about finding a different provider.