A Baker’s
Dozen Frequently Asked Questions about Hearing Loops
1.
How
many Americans live with hearing loss?
According to
the National
Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders[i] “approximately 17 percent (36 million) of American adults report some
degree of hearing loss.” According to a 2011 report based on
audiometric testing of Americans 12 and older in the National
Health and Nutritional Examination Surveys (NHANES), 30 million Americans
have at least a 25 db hearing loss in both ears and 48 million in one or both
ears. Unlike those challenged by mobility or vision loss, people challenged
by hearing loss are often an invisible and forgotten minority. About 1 in 4—some 8.4 million[ii]—have hearing aids, a number that would
surely increase if hearing aids could double as wireless, customized
loudspeakers.
2.
Why are hearing loops needed? Don’t hearing
aids enable hearing?
Today’s digital hearing aids enhance hearing
in conversational settings. Yet for many
people with hearing loss the sound becomes unclear when auditorium or TV
loudspeakers are at a distance, when the context is noisy, or when room
acoustics reverberate sound. A hearing
loop magnetically transfers the microphone or TV sound signal to hearing aids
and cochlear implants that have a tiny, inexpensive “telecoil” receiver. This transforms the instruments into
in-the-ear loudspeakers that deliver sound customized for one’s own hearing
loss.
3.
How
many hearing aids have the telecoil (t-coil) receptor for receiving hearing
loop input?
In surveys of
hearing professionals, the Hearing
Journal (April, 2009) reported that 58% of hearing aid fittings included a
telecoil, an increase from 37% in 2001.
In its 2009/2010 reviews of hearing aid models, the Hearing Review Products reported that 126 (69%) of 183 hearing aid
models—including all 38 in-the-ear models and 29 of 30 conventional
behind-the-ear models—come with telecoils.
In 2014, the Consumer’s Guide to
Hearing Aids reported that 323 of 415 hearing aid models (71.5%) were now coming with telecoils,
as were 81% of models larger than the miniaturized completely-in-the-canal
aid. Moreover, the greater people’s need
for hearing assistance, the more likely they are to have hearing aids with
telecoils—as did 84 percent of Hearing Loss Association of America members in
one survey. New model cochlear implants
also offer telecoils.
4.
Can
hearing loops serve those without telecoils or without hearing aids?
Yes, all forms
of assistive listening, including hearing loops, come with portable receivers
and headsets (though most such units sit in closets unused.)
5.
What
does a hearing loop cost?
Costs range
from $140 to $300 for self-installed home TV room loops up to several thousand
dollars for professional installation in an average-sized auditorium or worship
space. Most churches can install a
hearing loop for little or no more than the cost of one pair of high end
hearing aids, though a large facility with embedded metal will be more
expensive. Auditorium hearing loops cost
somewhat more than do other assistive listening systems, which require a
receiver and headset. But the cost per
user is typically less (because many more people will use assistive listening
that is hearing aid compatible). Moreover,
hearing loops offer long-term savings from purchasing and maintaining batteries
in fewer portable listening units. For
the user, the telecoil cost is nominal and typically does not add to the
hearing aid price.
6.
Hearing
loops harness magnetic energy. So is
magnetic interference problematic?
Generally not. Old
(nonflat) computer monitors, old fluorescent lighting, and some old dimmer
switches generate interference, as do some cars and all airplanes. But the experience in hundreds of West
Michigan venues and tens of thousands of Scandinavian and British venues is
that interference-free installation is nearly always possible.
7.
Isn’t
this a decades-old technology?
Like electronic
computers, magnetic induction loop technology began some 70 years ago, and now
is in newly developed forms (with new amplifier and telecoil technologies, and
new computer-modeled designs for complex installations) and with new
applications.
8. Don’t newer connective technologies work
better? New wireless technologies,
including Bluetooth, do some helpful things, such as enable binaural phone
listening. But Bluetooth isn’t an
assistive listening answer (it requires significant battery power and has
limited range). An alternative future
assistive listening solution—one that, like hearing loops, is hearing aid
compatible—will need similarly to a) be inexpensive (essentially no cost to the
consumer), b) be capable of covering a wide area, c) drain little battery power
(telecoils require no power), d) be universally accessible, and e) be
sufficiently miniaturized that the receiver can fit in nearly all hearing aids.
9.
Can
hearing loops be used in adjacent rooms?
Yes, with a
professional design that controls sound spillover.
10. Are there advantages to using hearing loops
for home TV listening and in public settings?
A hearing aid
compatible loop system delivers sound that’s customized by one’s hearing aids
for one’s own ears. It requires no fuss with extra
equipment. And rather than plugging
one’s ears, it allows use of a mic + telecoil (M/T) setting, enabling one to
hear the room conversation or one’s phone ringing. In public settings, their main advantage is
that, when not hearing well, people need only activate their telecoils. There’s no need to get up, seek out, and wear
conspicuous equipment (which few people with hearing loss take the initiative
to do). Additionally, the sound is
contained in one’s ear, without bothering others nearby. There is no need to juggle between headsets
and hearing aids (during, say, a worship service). And there are no hygienic concerns about
putting in or on one’s ear what has been around others’ ears.
11. Can hearing loops work in transient venues
such as airports, at ticket windows, or at drive-up order stations?
Indeed, which
is why New York City Transit Authority has installed hearing loops at 488
subway information booths. In such
venues, where checkout equipment is not realistic, the only possible assistive
listening device is one’s own hearing aid or cochlear implant.
12. Aren’t Britain’s thousands of loop systems
in transient venues sometimes not working?
The Royal
National Institute for Deaf People did find that a number of the loops in shops
and other transient venues were not working. Their response was not to
discount hearing assistance in such venues, but rather to undertake an
awareness campaign to see that the devices are turned on and operating, much as
wheelchair ramps need to be kept open. (See here[iii] and here[iv].) Any assistive
listening will not work unless turned on.
When properly installed and periodically checked, hearing loops require
little or no maintenance to work reliably.
13. Who makes hearing loops and where can they
be purchased?
A variety of
established European and mostly new American manufacturers are designing and
marketing hearing loop amplifiers for a wide variety of installations, from
home TV rooms to taxi back seats and ticket windows to cathedrals. 
