Hard of Hearing Can Stay in Loop

By David G. Myers

Editor: Regular readers will remember David Myers as the man who is working loop America. He wants induction loops installed in all public facilities to provide better communications access to people with hearing loss.

Induction loops are simply large loops of wire that are typically installed under a carpet or behind an acoustic tile ceiling. They are driven by an amplifier and produce a magnetic field that drives the telecoil in a hearing aid. The effect of this simple technology is that a person can set her hearing aid to the telecoil position and pick up what's being said just as if she were talking on a phone.

For more information, please visit www.hearingloop.org.

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As I sat surrounded by several hundred others in London's Gatwick Airport main departure lounge last month, I strained to hear announcements about my delayed flight to Detroit. Alas, the sound from the distant loudspeakers was too foggy for my hard-of-hearing ears.

But hold it. This was Britain, a country whose cathedrals, churches and auditoriums now wirelessly broadcast sound directly to hearing aids.

"The whole of the church is served by a hearing loop," said the first sentence of Westminster Abbey's program for the 50th anniversary celebration of the Queen's coronation. "Users should turn their hearing aid to the setting marked T."

Doing so activates a tiny "telecoil" receiver that not only aids telephone listening but can also transform one's hearing aids into in-the-ear loudspeakers.

Clear to a T

Knowing all this, I tried my hearing aids on their T setting at the airport. Voila! Suddenly I was hearing crystal-clear announcements broadcast from customized loudspeakers inside my ears! Just as my wi- fi-equipped laptop was receiving information wirelessly, so were my hearing aids (via magnetic signals sent through a wire loop that was invisibly surrounding me, likely from underneath the carpet).

It's not just in places of worship and at Gatwick Airport that Britain now broadcasts sound directly to hearing aids. It's also at designated post-office, bank-teller and train-ticket windows. And soon this user-friendly assistive listening will be available at all London Underground ticket windows and in the back seats of all London taxis.

Having many times benefited from the U.K.'s hearing-aid-compatible assistive listening, I wondered, why not the U.S.A. as well? Our prevailing assistive listening systems require us hard of hearing people to locate, check out, wear and return conspicuous receivers and headsets (which often also require removing one's hearing aids).

These headsets, which also are available with loop systems for people as yet without telecoils, often work well. The only problem is that not many people will willingly suffer the hassle and mild embarrassment. (How often have you seen a hard of hearing person using an assistive listening headset?) One manager at Holland's largest theater complex told me that her assistive listening headsets get checked out about once per month per theater.

Getting into the loop

For starters, I installed a simple loop system in my TV room (typical self-installation cost: $200 to $300). The result was wonderful. If you were to watch TV with me, you would hear the TV speaker sound at whatever level you wish; I would hear the TV broadcast from my own hearing aids (at a volume I dial on the loop amplifier and customized by my aids for my own hearing needs). I've also looped my office, which enables me to hear telephone conversation broadcast through two ears, with greatly increased clarity.

So, I thought, why not loop a demonstration American community? And what better place than my own caring community, Holland-Zeeland? The response, I'm pleased to report, has been overwhelmingly gratifying. Today, Holland-Zeeland is arguably America's most supportive community for people with hearing loss. Most of our churches, most of our high school and college auditoriums and many other public and business facilities -- more than 80 venues in all -- have installed hearing loops that broadcast sound via people's in-the-ear loudspeakers.

In my own church, where one person used our former assistive listening system requiring headsets, ten people soon were using our new $2,000 loop system, all of them inconspicuously, with the subtle touch of a switch. One woman who could have used our old headsets but didn't said, "It is actually fun to go to church and hasn't been that way for a long time." Another reported, "The experience of actually hearing such clear sounds was thrilling and hard to describe. One has to experience the improvement. It seemed overwhelming."

In another church, one woman, after switching on her telecoil and hearing sound "like I hadn't heard in years" broke into tears of joy and could not stop crying. Awakening at 4 a.m. the next morning and reflecting on what she had experienced, she cried some more. One pastor was initially disappointed to have no users of his church's new loop system. But eight months later the happy pastor had three long-absent hard of hearing users now attending again plus three newcomers who had sought out his newly accessible church. Moreover, members who purchase hearing aids in the future -- as more are now inspired to do -- know to have the inexpensive telecoil receiver included.

By equipping their clients with telecoils, our local audiologists have been a key part of the success of our community initiative. They also have shared in the pleasure.

"Never in my audiology career has something so simple helped so many people at so little cost," reports Jerry Owens, the owner of Lakeshore Hearing Centers.

The Holland-Zeeland initiative has had "a profound influence on the people I see. Nearly everyone I've seen who uses the loop system has had favorable results," notes James Walsh of the Holland Hearing Center. Telecoils and loop systems "transform hearing aids into 'personal communication systems,'" explains audiologist Karen Van Doorne of K.A. Van Doorne & Associates.

In response to a Grand Rapids Press article on the Holland-Zeeland's hearing initiative, Rich DeVos, founding chairman of the National Organization on Disability, sent me a note of congratulations and encouragement. Impressed by his kindness, I invited him out for coffee. Not long after, he invited his colleague Dr. Luis Tomatis to explore a possible extension of hearing aid compatible assistive listening to the churches and public facilities of Grand Rapids and beyond.

Happily, Grand Rapids is now well on its way to becoming a cool city for people with hearing loss. Late last month, Mayor George Heartwell, with support from two local audiologists who are past presidents of the Michigan Academy of Audiology, announced a new Grand Rapids hearing initiative from the City Commission's newly looped chambers.

Already, the DeVos Place, the DeVos Symphony Hall, and several college auditoriums and churches have installed hearing loops or have made plans to do so. (See hearingloop.org for more information, including a list of the looped facilities in Holland-Zeeland and in Grand Rapids.)

Kudos for Grand Rapids already are being heard. Juanita Wikman, the immediate past president of Michigan's hard of hearing persons organization (which has urged the installation of "assistive listening systems that broadcast sound directly through hearing aids"), has praised the new Grand Rapids initiative. So has Bonnie Vokits, director of the Lakeshore Deaf/Hard of Hearing Connection.

Those interested in learning more about how their homes, churches, or facilities might benefit from hearing aid compatible assistive listening are invited to a public information meeting on Monday at DeVos Place, from 11 a.m. to noon. One of the speakers, Terry Portis, executive director of Self-Help for Hard of Hearing People, plans to announce the formation of a Grand Rapids area chapter of this organization.

With the technology now spreading to other communities in the Lakeshore region, West Michigan is leading the way to a new future for people with hearing loss -- one where hearing aids have doubled functionality (as microphone amplifiers and as wireless loudspeakers).

When that day comes, hearing aid use will increase. The stigma of hearing loss will diminish, as will the cost of hearing aids. Support for insurance and Medicare/Medicaid funding for hearing aids will grow.