Experts discuss telecoils and the future of hearing aid-compatible assistive devices

Abstract

So old, and yet so promising. That describes the venerable telecoil and its modern applications. In some European countries, telecoils now routinely come with hearing aids and serve a dual purpose: to enhance telephone conversation and enable hearing aids to serve as customized, wireless speakers for broadcasting sound. In most churches with a PA system, in auditoriums, in every London taxi, and increasingly at bank teller stations, train ticket windows, pharmacy counters, and tourist information stations, induction loop systems broadcast sound directly to hearing aids. (The sound transmits to the telecoil sensor via magnetic energy from a wire loop around the listener.) In the United States, assistive listening is mostly hearing aid incompatible. But telecoils, and the hearing aid-compatible phones and assistive listening they enable, are making strides. Consider the following: ! All landline phones and, under FCC guidelines, more and more cell phones transmit not only sound but also a magnetic signal that enables enhanced listening in hearing aids with telecoils. ! In a recent Hearing Journal survey, hearing professionals reported that 62% of the hearing aids they dispensed in 2007 came with a telecoil, up from an estimated 30% a decade earlier. Although other estimates have been closer to 50%, most BTE aids worn by those most needing hearing assistance now come with telecoils. ! With support from hearing professionals and consumer groups, Arizona recently enacted a law requiring hearing professionals to explain the usefulness of telecoils to hearing aid purchasers. ! The Hearing Loss Associations of California and Michigan are now recommending hearing aid-compatible assistive listening. The California group states, “In all new and extensively remodeled buildings [with] PA systems, a loop should be permanently installed.” ! Hundreds of loop systems are operational in West Michigan, including throughout the new Grand Rapids convention center and in both concourses and all gate areas of the Grand Rapids airport. ! Consumer have launched initiatives to promote hearing aid-compatible loop installations in many communities, including Tucson, Albuquerque, Racine (WI), St. Joseph/ Benton Harbor (MI), New York City, and California’s Silicon Valley. To explore the significance of these developments for hearing professionals, hard-of-hearing consumers, and the hearing industry, The Hearing Journal invited me to convene a virtual conversation among several experts. They are: Bjorn Christ, president of ReSound USA; William Diles, whose thriving audiology practice in Santa Rosa, CA, offers home TV room loop installations with hearing aid purchases; Norman Lederman, founder and research director of Oval Window Audio, a loop system manufacturer; Bowen Marshall, manager of RD Mark Ross, professor emeritus of audiology at the University of Connecticut and a prominent advocate for the hearing-impaired; Janice Schacter, chair of New York City’s Hearing Access Program, a consortium of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the League for the Hard of Hearing, and the Hearing Loss Association of America; and Michael Wiersma, marketing director of Premovation Audio, which has designed and installed hundreds of loop systems in Michigan and beyond.