What do loop systems cost?

Thanks to its personalized sound, easy convenience, inconspicuousness, and universal applicability (from home TV rooms to cathedrals), hard of hearing people are most likely to use assistive listening that is hearing aid compatible. With portable receivers for those who don't yet have hearing aids with telecoils, today's hearing aid compatible technology (loop systems) can serve everyone. Moreover, it can serve anyone anywhere, including transient venues such as ticket windows or airport lounge--where checking out FM or infrared portable listening aids is impractical. Small wonder that loop systems are becoming omnipresent in Britain, Denmark, and elsewhere in northern Europe.

For optimal effectiveness, loop systems require hearing aids with telecoils, and, vice-versa, telecoil-equipped hearing aids need loop systems to be fully functional. In Britain, where hearing aids distributed by the National Health Service come with telecoils, loop systems are being installed in public venues wherever sound is communicated to listeners. The spread of loop systems, in turn, motivates people to acquire hearing aids that also serve as personalized in-the-ear loudspeakers.

So how might America become similarly supportive of people with hearing loss?

Step one has already been taken: Equip telephones to broadcast to telecoils. Since 1989, Federal legislation has mandated that all newly manufactured public phones, and hotel and office phones that might be needed for emergency purposes, be telecoil compatible. The net effect is that most office and home telephones, including many cell phones, will enhance listening by broadcasting directly to telecoils. In 2003, the FCC required digital wireless phone companies and service providers to make telecoil-compatible phones available effective 2005 and beyond.

Step two is also accomplished: Let another country demonstrate the success of a national loop initiative. The progressive countries of northern Europe are paving the way. "Here [in Denmark] we can just install a good loop system in a theater or a church building or any meeting room (and we do---our churches are almost 100% covered now), and ask hard of hearing people to switch to the T-position," reports the Rev. Jan Gronborg Eriksen, president of Churchear. Likewise, in Britain, most churches, cathedrals, and auditoriums are now looped and virtually all hearing aids distributed by the National Health Service are loop compatible.

Step three is well underway: Loop a demonstration community. Aided by local corporate and foundation support and a publicly announced initiative, Holland-Zeeland, Michigan, has become a model looped community. Dozens of churches, schools, businesses, and public venues have become looped (see list).

The initiative is now spreading elsewhere in West Michigan, including Grand Rapids.

Knowing that telecoils will henceforth facilitate hearing in most of the community's major facilities, audiologists and hearing specialists are supporting the initiative as they sell the next generation of hearing aids. Information on specific strategies for publicizing and funding this model initiative is available here.

Step four is to extend the initiative to a national level, home by home, church by church, auditorium by auditorium, community by community. If any individual church or community will install and publicize its loop system, its people will then be motivated to get telecoils and they, in turn, will spread the word. To support the spread of loop systems we

• are developing this informational web site
• have created, with permission from the National Association of the Deaf, a universal logo that informs people of looped facilities and points them to further information. We are also offering this signage in either electronic or hard copy form free to anyone.
• have accepted invitations to
  • write an article explaining loop systems to a national church audience
  • write about our efforts for a magazine for hard of hearing persons
  • also articles for hearing professionals. (More.)
  • speak to the 2002 convention of Self Help for the Hard of Hearing and to various other gatherings of hearing professionals and the hard of hearing.
• are corresponding with other loop advocates, including people with hearing loss and manufacturers
• have met with a member of the U.S. House of Representatives to explore government agencies that might be supportive and also to explore the possibility of making the U.S. House another demonstration site.
• will soon be welcoming interviews with national newspapers, magazines, and television media--media that serve the America's 28 million hard of hearing, their 50 million or so family members, and countless millions more who are eager to make America more accessible and supportive of the growing number of people with hearing loss. We anticipate partnering in some of our media outreach with oneLink, another Holland, Michigan-based initiative to serve people with disabilities (by creating a universal frequency that enables people in wheelchairs, on crutches, and without vision to open doors without needing to locate and reach wall-mounted push buttons).

If you have media contacts, creative ideas, and good wishes, or if we could answer your questions, please do contact us. You also can help by spreading the word, such as by pointing people (hard of hearing friends, church building committees, local hearing specialists, newspapers, etc.) to hearingloop.org.

"Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."~ Margaret Mead