Too many hard of hearing people are missing out

by Stephen O. Frazier

April 2010

Editor: You may have seen the recent news that HLAA and AAA are collaborating to promote hearing loops throughout the US, and the organizations' leaders have submitted a letter to major dailies throughout the country so advocating. Steve Frazier wrote an OpEd piece in which he takes a "more controversial approach", and he has submitted it to other newspapers in New Mexico. He encourages people to " plagiarize [his] piece to help them write a piece for their local paper.

Steve is a Certified Hearing Loss Support Specialist, the New Mexico State Chapter Coordinator of the Hearing Loss Association of America, and chair of the Loop New Mexico Committee.

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Hearing aids have improved dramatically in the last decade but they're just that - aids. People will hear better with hearing aids but they still don't hear well in many situations. For one on one settings or in small groups today's digital hearing aids work remarkably well but they don't restore hearing like glasses restore vision. For some wearers hearing aids don't even make it possible to hear and understand in church, at a theatrical production of even while watching TV in the comfort of their own living room.

For activities like that, some sort of assistive listening system beyond hearing aids is called for and far too many of the hard of hearing are missing out on hearing in these settings because they don't know about such systems - devices often mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act but not publicized by the venues who are required to provide them.

Signs in movie theaters, concert halls - even the Roundhouse - are not large enough, strategically placed or prominent enough to alert people to the availability of assistive devices. If the sign is noticed and a headset or other accommodation is requested, the batteries are often dead IF the equipment can even be located.

Many are also missing out because their hearing care provider may not have counseled them in the most cost effective system with the best sound reproduction - the telecoils in their hearing aids. Telecoils are small, wire receivers inside the majority of hearing aids that can pick up a magnetic signal and turn it into sound that is then corrected to correspond to that individual's audiogram pattern by modern digital hearing aids and sent on to the brain. They replace the headsets used in FM or infra red assistive listening systems with the individual's own hearing aids - doubling their utility.

A study by Mark Ross and Carren Stika, nationally known experts, found that less than 50% of hearing care providers counsel their clients on the use of the telecoils in their hearing aids and less than a third of them counsel their clients on the availability and use of assistive listening devices that can supplement their hearing aids. This problem is so pervasive that the American Academy of Audiology, in cooperation with the Hearing Loss Association of America, has recently launched a national campaign to raise the awareness of both hearing care professionals and the hard of hearing to the benefits of hearing loops and telecoils and assistive technology in general. Some states have even enacted laws mandating such counselling but New Mexico is not among them.

In at least one regard, however, New Mexico is ahead of the curve. The Loop New Mexico initiative of the Hearing Loss Association of Albuquerque got under way several years ago and, in partnership with the nonprofit assistive devices retailer ATS Resources, has played a role in getting over 75 churches, performance halls, senior center meeting rooms, hearing care offices and other venues around the state and here in Las Cruces to install hearing loops so that all hard of hearing people must do to hear in their facility is to push a button on their hearing aids to turn on the telecoil.

In those venues, there's no need to sit "up front" at church to hear the service or front row center to hear the actors in the theater. There's no need to take out your hearing aids and wear a borrowed, previously used headset (possibly with run down batteries) and then return it at the end of a service or performance. Loop New Mexico has only scratched the surface, though. Too many hard of hearing New Mexicans are missing out and they need to speak up - ask their church to install an assistive listening system - preferably a hearing loop. Demand that the inadequate systems in the Roundhouse be replaced with something more easily accessible. Insist that the local movie house keep the batteries charged in their headsets, train their staff in their use and put up big, easily seen signs announcing their availability.