What do loop systems cost?

What hearing aids can receive loop broadcasts?

Most behind-the-ear hearing aids routinely come with telecoil sensors. These are the hearing aids typically worn by those with the most profound loss, the very people most needing hearing assistance. Increasingly, in-the-ear aids also come with telecoils. One show of hands of Hearing Loss Association of America convention attendees revealed that nearly all wore hearing aids with telecoils, as did 75 percent of their members in a 2002 online survey.

Currently about 90 percent of British hearing aids have telecoils, as do about half of new American aids (up from an estimated 30 percent in the mid-1990s). Where loop systems are installed, the percentage of people with telecoils will naturally rise as they become more useful. (How many people had televisions before TV stations began broadcasting?)

Even so, a loop system will immediately serve more people, for two reasons: 1) anyone without telecoils can still check out portable receivers, as with other assistive listening systems, and 2) few people in churches, movie theaters, and auditoriums presently bother to check out the portable receivers. Where a loop system is installed, nearly all telecoil-equipped people will use it. With a higher and growing usage rate, loop systems promise to benefit more people (as well as to serve their needs more effectively and inconspicuously).

Hard of hearing people who have prioritized cosmetics over hearing have usually elected invisible "completely in the canal" aids or inconspicuous in-the-canal aids, which generally have had insufficient room for the telecoils. Telecoils are, however, reportedly becoming more miniaturized and can now be included "in all but the tiniest hearing aids," reports audiological researcher-writer Mark Ross.

"Telecoils turn any aid from working like a Ford into a Cadillac. Telecoils make the difference whether you hear or not on the telephone....Any place with a loop system installed--you are golden to hear! And I kid you not!!!!!!" ~Curtis Dickinson, Hearing Loss Help Co.

With the flick of a tiny switch the telecoil-equipped hearing aid switches from a microphone (M) to a telecoil (T) mode. Many hearing aids also offer a setting for simultaneous mike and telecoil (MT). In settings where one wishes both inputs, the MT setting is useful.

In some cases it is possible to add T-coils to existing hearing aids, but at greater cost than the minimal cost of T-coils with original purchase. One's audiologist can advise on cost. Telecoils as shown here (courtesy Tibbetts Industries, Inc.), are tiny additions to hearing aids.

Mark Ross offers more information about telecoils and their usefulness with telephones: "The ordinary telecoil (the 'T' coil) is perhaps the most common and most underestimated assistive listening device available . . . more . . ." Dr. Ross also envisions a possible future that harnesses "Bluetooth" technology. Audiology professor Nancy Aarts also offers helpful information about telecoils, as does audiology writer Douglas Beck. Verizon's explanation of telecoil compatibility requirements in more and more cellphones (as well as all landline phones) is nicely explained here.

For additional information visit Hard of Hearing Advocates.