Looping system improves hearing in public places

A not-so-new technology to help those with hearing loss to hear better is being installed in some public spaces in Green Valley.

Known as the “looping system,” it will be installed in the main meeting room of the Joyner Library tentatively by the end of March.

Green Valley Recreation has looping systems in the auditoriums at the East and West Centers as well as portable units for use in classrooms.

Now, people who have a hearing aid with a tele-coil, also referred to as a t-coil, can hear voices clearly via magnetic signals.

Locally, Louis Touchette is knowledgeable about the workings and successes of the system and will help install it in the library.

“There were complaints from those who were coming to the meeting room that they couldn’t hear. People come to a meeting to get information; this (looping system) will accommodate them,” he said.

La Posada added the system last year and Touchette called it “a showcase for the looping system.”

Since working as a crew chief in the Air Force and hearing jet engines at close range as a young adult, Touchette has profound hearing loss that requires him to use two hearing aids.

Familiar with the looping system, he has installed smaller versions in homes and will be installing a system in his new home now under construction.

Touchette said that many seniors have varying degrees of hearing loss. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders 32 percent of people over age 65 have hearing loss and 40 to 50 percent of those 75 and older have hearing loss.

“With so many seniors affected the looping system brings long-hoped-for relief,” he said.

Essentially, the looping system is a loop of wire that encircles a room. The loop picks up the sound of a person speaking, and with the help of an amplifier, is transmitted through the wire and confines of the looped room.

When a person selects the “T” (telecoil or telephone) position on the hearing aid the signal from the loop is processed within the hearing aid to make to necessary corrections. The intelligible sound is then delivered to the person’s ear.

Similar in design to the room loop is a small portable type “neckloop” that goes over the head and is worn like a necklace.

It plugs into a receiver, which in turn, receives its input from either a microphone or a wireless transmitter with a microphone. The hearing aid picks up the signal from the neckloop in the same manner as it does the room loop, Touchette explained.

For those who have hearing loss but do not have hearing aids, or who have hearing aids that don’t have a T-switch, there is an alternative.

A “Pocket Talker” type receiver or wireless receiver can be used instead. Additionally, a device that resembles a hearing aid called an “In-the-Ear Loop Receiver” can be inserted into the ear and used with a room loop or neckloop.

Touchette said an In-the-Ear Loop Receiver can be purchased for about $125.

Cathedrals, churches and auditoriums in Great Britain now broadcast sound wirelessly to hearing aids. That’s because legislation in the UK has mandated looping public buildings, theaters, churches and post offices.

The United States is starting to pick-up on the improved technology. A 2005 survey found that 48 percent of new American hearing aids now come with tele-coils.

Inspired by Prof. David Myers, Ph.D. who began looping Holland-Zeeland, Mich., it’s said to be American’s most supportive community for people with hearing loss. More than 80 venues have installed looping systems.

Closer to home, the Adult Loss of Hearing Association (ALOHA) in Tucson has undertaken an initiative “Let’s Loop Tucson” to create a modern city of looped public buildings to include theaters, churches and senior centers.

For further information, Lou Touchette may be reached at loutouchette@cox.net

Ellen Sussman is a freelance writer for the Green Valley News.