Albuquerque Journal
Sunday, May 30, 2010

ALT Puts Its Patrons in the Loop

By Tom Travin
Of the Journal

To hear, or not to hear. That's a question that most people take for granted. But it can be a much more dramatic proposition for the hard of hearing. It's especially difficult in a large room where sound doesn't always carry: for instance, a theater.

The Albuquerque Little Theatre is taking center stage in the effort to make attending plays a more complete and enjoyable experience for those with diminished hearing.

ALT has installed a hearing "loop," which will boost sound levels for those who have modern hearing aids with telecoils. And thanks to donated headsets, those with older, analog hearing aids also can get better sound quality.

The system itself is simple. A wire is looped around the seating area and hooked up to an amplifier, into which are fed microphones. The mikes pick up the performers' voices, send them to the amp, which boosts the signal and, after some sound correction, transmits it to the wire.

The wire creates a magnetic field that's picked up by the telecoils in most modern hearing aids. It then boosts the sound level and improves clarity.
Simple, right? So what took so long?

"I think it was a combination of minds coming together at one point, because there were different approaches on what we could do to help the hearing impaired," said Henry Avery, the ALT's executive director.

One of those minds belongs to Stephen O. Frazier. Frazier, the chairman of the Loop New Mexico Committee of the Hearing Loss Association of Albuquerque, is a man on a mission. He wants all manner of public buildings to install the technology, which has been prevalent in Europe since the '40s but slow to catch on in the States. "In England, virtually all of the hearing aids have telecoils in them," he said. "You can go to church, you can go to Parliament, you can go in a London taxicab, and it's looped."

Frazier helped recruit Mike Langner to the cause. Langner, a retired certified professional broadcast engineer, is a guy who loves solving problems. The Hearing Loss Association brought in Langner to fix their system. It took him half an hour. Frazier was clearly impressed, and he called Langner back to propose looping the ALT. "I said not only are the possibilities very good, but I'll donate all the materials if I can get some help from the theater for running the wire around the walls," Langner said. "I found an amplifier backstage that was literally holding open a door — it was truly a doorstop. ... I said, well, let's see if we can make something here."

Josh Bien, the assistant technical director of ALT, helped Langner run the wire and set up the system. It made its first appearance during the production of "White Christmas" in December, not the easiest debut because the show is a musical and features much wider variances of sound than a comedy or drama.

"It was shoddy at best then," Bien said. "But we're hearing less and less complaints as we keep tweaking and going forward."

"There are two real challenges here," Langner said. "One is, the loop only hears what goes in a microphone. And one of the things that we who are members of the hearing-impaired community have fits with is very echoey sound. If the sound going in the microphone is very echoey, because it's not near the performer, what we get is louder, echoey sound."

"It's great for ALT to have this," Bien said, "because with a 500-seat theater, we have to fill it any way we can. And if people can't hear it, of course they're not going to come. But if they can hear it, it increases our audience potential."

Lest you think hearing loops are merely a concern of the aged and feeble, turn down your iPod and think again. Frazier knows his statistics.
"The incidence of hearing loss in this country is double the increase in the population itself," he said. "... With boomers, the incidence is about twice what it was with their parents' generation."

Theaters that have been slow to embrace the technology, Langner said, may be changing their tune in the not-too-distant future.

"I think as the boomer generation becomes older," more theaters will utilize the technology, he said. "My sense is that the revenue flow for the theater is right on the cusp of justifying it. ... (At ALT) the audience demographics are such that if it were even just based on revenue, it would be a good idea. But thankfully here, it's based on serving the community with this wonderful theater."

Avery, who's directing the current production of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," knows how important his older fan base is to ALT; they're the people with the time and discretionary income to attend live theater. But he also knows he has to start building new audiences.

"We get a lot of families here," Avery said, "so we try to encourage the younger audience. When I came here three years ago and got on the board, it was like, all right, I'm older, but are you gonna do the status quo or try to bring in young audiences? I think the theater had gone through a slump for a while, and we needed to get the audience back. But our goal is to start building the audiences that are going to be here tomorrow."

Bien, who also works at the Vortex Theatre, said he and Langner are ready to begin a project there, with more of Langner's donated time and materials.

Albuquerque Journal - Jun 20, 2010; Section:Mature Life; Page:6

PUSHING the sound barrier
Hearing induction loops in churches, other venues are making it easier to listen in
Story by Matt Andazola Photographs by Morgan Petroski Of the Journal


If Chris Addis, 79, wants to see the podium during church, she just puts on glasses. But when Addis, a hard-of-hearing advocate, wants to hear the speaker, she needs more than just hearing aids. The devices are great, she says, but “do not sound like normal hearing,” especially in public places with large groups. “It actually takes a lot of energy to listen really hard.” But hearing induction loops, or cables hidden in walls that create an electromagnetic field connected to a public address system, are making life much easier. All Addis and people like her need to do in a “looped” church is press a button on their hearing aids to listen in. “It’s terrific, it saves a lot of stress,” she says. “With a loop you can relax.” Venues, too, find that hearing induction loops are easy to maintain, and they are popular with patrons and parishioners. “It seems to work really well,” says Kenneth Davis, cathedral coordinator for St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Downtown Albuquerque, which installed the technology about three years ago. “A lot of people are glad that we did get it in because they can hear now.” About 100 St. John’s members, mostly seniors, use the loop system weekly, Davis says.

Loop technology has existed for 70 years and is much more common in Europe, advocates say.

But New York is following suit: In the past two years, loops have been approved for taxis and 642 subway information booths, according to public notices from the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission and Metro Transportation Authority.

Because only a handful of public places had hearing loops five years ago, the Hearing Loss Association of Albuquerque and similar national organizations began a campaign for more widespread use.

The Albuquerque association lists 48 venues in New Mexico with some form of the technology in place, of which 28 are churches. Large venues, such as Our Lady of the Annunciation Roman Catholic Church, and smaller ones, like the board room at the Hispano Chamber of Commerce, have embraced the technology. Live theater is also getting in on the act: A section of seating at the Vortex Theater is looped, as is the Albuquerque Little Theatre. First Unitarian church on Carlisle NE installed a loop about two years ago. “We haven’t gotten a whole lot of feedback from it because it works I guess,” says James McHenry, who works on the church’s sound system. He says the hearing loop hasn’t needed any maintenance since being installed. Carol Sliney, 68, attends First Unitarian and says she loves the loop. “It’s like night and day as far as speech understanding for me,” she says. Without the loop, “you miss certain sounds and you can’t pick up words. Sometimes it’s the full sentence, sometimes only part of the sentence.”

Loops are also helping in some serious contexts. One room in the Metropolitan Court building is looped, though only four or five people a year inform court officials that they’re using the technology, says court spokeswoman Janet Blair.

Other courtrooms offer different assisted-listening services, she says.

People may not have commented on the systems because many don’t want to identify themselves as hard-of-hearing, says Jim Ogle, 64, a loop user.

“With this kind of system, the nice thing for the user is that you don’t have to let anybody know you’re doing it,” Ogle says. “If you turn it off after a year, I think you’d get all kinds of complaints.”

Headset system

Many entertainment venues and churches in Albuquerque without loop systems accommodate hard-of-hearing patrons by offering headsets to amplify sound transmitted over radio waves or infrared beams of light.

At First Unitarian, the radio-wave headset system “didn’t work nearly as well,” McHenry says.

The headsets sound something like loudspeakers next to the ears, says Steve Frazier, 72, of the Albuquerque association. Headsets don’t balance sound for a person’s needs the way wellfit hearing aids do, he says.

And alongside the routine hassle of arriving early to borrow equipment, Frazier says venues tend to lose the headsets or forget to replace the batteries.

With a loop system, people whose aids have T-coil — the technology that picks up the electromagnetic hearing loop — need only press a button to hear a public speaker, says Carol Clifford, doctor of audiology and owner of Albuquerque Hearing Associates. Hard-of-hearing people also can buy neck loops, necklace-like devices that receive infrared or radio signals and create the electromagnetic field for T-coil hearing aids. Some venues, including Christ Unity Church and the University of New Mexico’s Popejoy Hall, let patrons borrow these. T-coils add less than $100 to the price of hearing aids, a set of which runs $2,000 to $7,000, Clifford says. It’s also possible to set up a hearing loop inside a home, connected to a TV, for instance, Clifford says, which costs less than $200. Loop equipment costs $1,000 to $1,700 for each venue and installation varies, depending on size, says Sally Schwartz of nonprofit ATS Resources in Albuquerque, which has installed the technology in several venues, such as Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, the chapel in the Veteran’s Affairs main hospital and St. John’s United Methodist Church. Hearing loops aren’t without their drawbacks, she says, and may not be right for a building where there is a lot of pre-existing electromagnetic interference.

Walking too near major power lines with the T-coil turned on also creates a buzzing noise, Ogle says.

Other technologies, including Bluetooth, may be better for mobile activities like talking on a cell phone, Clifford says.

But for large venues, nothing compares to the loop, says hard-of-hearing activist Diane Fomby, 71. “It’s relaxing, it’s comfortable, it’s easy,” she says. “The loop makes it effortless to understand.”

Fomby, in town from Denver in May for a conference, says that looping is more common in this city than hers. But even here, Frazier is advocating for the technology in banks, pharmacies and more venues.

“We’ve made impressive progress,” Frazier says, “but we’ve got an awfully long way to go.” Looped locations

These are among the Albuquerque venues and churches that have been looped: Abiding Word Lutheran Church Albuquerque Center for Spiritual Living Albuquerque Little Theatre Deaf Culture Center Fair Valley Church First Presbyterian Church Hispano Chamber of Commerce New Mexico Relay Network Our Lady of Annunciation Roman Catholic Church

Find out more

If you think you might have T-coil technology, which allows you to pick up hearing loop signals, in your hearing aid, check with the audiologist or vendor who sold it to you, says Carol Clifford, owner of Albuquerque Hearing Associates.

If you wonder if a church or venue has a hearing loop, look for signs inside or near the door.

You also can check a list of looped locations at www.hlaabq.com/ loopnm.html or call the state of New Mexico Commission for Deaf and Hard of Hearing at
Albuquerque Journal
Monday, October 12, 2009

In the Loop

By Amanda Schoenberg
Journal Staff Writer

Imagine walking up to the counter at the bank and not being able to hear the teller, or never knowing whether a flight was called at the airport.

Now imagine being able to hear clearly — with the help of a tiny device called a telecoil.

Local advocates for people with hearing loss are pushing for that change through induction loop systems. With the loop system, a cable surrounds the perimeter of a room to create an electromagnetic field. That cable attaches to an amplifier that is connected to a sound source like a microphone or television.

To pick up sound, people with hearing aids or cochlear implants turn on the telecoil in their devices. The sounds they hear are corrected for their hearing loss. Once inside the loop, people are set for sound if they have a telecoil device, says Carol Clifford, audiologist and owner of Albuquerque Hearing Associates.
"The way I usually describe it to patients is it is like having a voice two inches from your ear," she says.

"All I have to do when I walk into a room that is looped is reach up and push the button," says Steve Frazier, chairman of the New Mexico Loop Committee and New Mexico coordinator for the Hearing Loss Association of America.
Frazier, who has a 95 percent decibel loss in the upper registers, says sound is automatically corrected for his particular degree of hearing loss when he uses a loop system.

Although loop technology has been around for 70 years, advocates say the U.S. is just catching up to European countries. In England, taxis have had loop systems since 1998. Loop systems are installed at Canterbury Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and inside Heathrow and Gatwick airports. In September, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission approved the technology for its taxi fleets.
In New Mexico, churches have been quickest to install loops, but proponents want to see systems in more public spaces like banks, pharmacies and courtrooms.

Public spaces
In a perfect world, every public space would be looped, says Romy Pierce, executive director of ATS Resources, a nonprofit store in Albuquerque that sells technologies for people with hearing loss.

Pierce says ATS Resources has been aggressively pushing for more loop systems for more than a year and a half with moderate success.

The New Mexico Central Credit Union on Lomas NE had a portable loop system in place for about three to four months on loan from ATS Resources, but few people used the system, vice president Melissa Phillips says.

To use the portable loop, which sat on the counter in front of the counter, tellers would speak into a small microphone and the person with hearing loss would listen through their hearing aids. The device allowed both people to speak about sensitive financial information without raising their voices, Phillips says.
But with only three or four customers using the device regularly, it was removed in September, Phillips says.

A portable loop system costs $291, Pierce says.

In early 2008, the city of Albuquerque looked into new technology for the podium in the City Council chambers that would also include a hearing loop. But due to budget constraints, the project was put on hold, says Crystal Ortega, clerk of the council. A closed captioning system remains in place for people with hearing loss, she says.

"We do have a technology that's getting us by right now," says Ortega.
'Whatever works'

Although she advocates for more loop systems, Pierce says they aren't ideal for every person with hearing loss or for every space. Until everyone has a telecoil in their hearing aid, FM or infrared assistive listening systems may be preferred, Pierce says. The goal should be improved accessibility however possible, she says.

"Whatever works, just be accessible," she says. "A loop is not the only answer."
Loop systems work for public venues like churches and theaters, Pierce says. They don't work as well in spaces like banks or drugstores because people with telecoils will pick up other conversations.

Loop systems can also be added at home, Frazier says. He has a looped living room and a portable neck loop he wears when using his cell phone. Clifford says about 50 of her patients have loop systems at home.

Several barriers remain before loop technology goes mainstream in the U.S., says Frazier. In some cases, people with hearing loss aren't told about the telecoils in their hearing aids or don't own devices with telecoils, he says. Adding a telecoil can cost about $100 to $200 more than hearing aids without the technology.
In European countries like England and Denmark nearly all hearing aids have telecoils, Frazier says. Among her patients at Albuquerque Speech Language and Hearing Center, senior audiologist Stephanie Sanchez says about 80 percent of patients have telecoils in their hearing aids.

"We tell 100 percent of our patients about telecoils and loop technology, however, not all are interested nor do all remember that they have the technology in their aids," she writes in an e-mail.

Sanchez wants to see more loop systems added to airports and banks — places where it is critical to hear what is being said — as well as entertainment venues and places of worship.

But lingering stigma may prevent the installation of more loop systems. One in 10 Americans has hearing loss, according to the Hearing Loss Association of America. As baby boomers age, that number is expected to double by 2030. In New Mexico about 200,000 people say they have hearing loss, Pierce says. But only about 20 percent of people with hearing loss wear hearing aids, Clifford says.
"Most hard of hearing don't realize they have a hearing loss or don't want to admit it," Pierce says.

For those who do, very few have health insurance that covers hearing aids, Clifford says.

The Americans With Disabilities Act requires equal access for people with hearing loss but doesn't specify the best ways to improve facilities, Pierce says. A closed captioned system, for example, may work well only for people close enough to see the monitor.

ATS Resources often works with business owners who say they don't have enough customers with hearing loss to warrant investing in technologies like loop systems. Pierce points out that businesses may have no idea just how many people with hearing loss they interact with on a daily basis.

"You don't know how many hard-of-hearing people cross your path," she says.

Information
For information about loop systems in New Mexico, see atsresources.org or hlaabq.com/LoopNM.html.


Albuquerque Journal - Opinion (Op Ed)
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 

Hearing Aids Alone Won't Do the Trick
By Stephen O. Frazier
State Coordinator, Hearing Loss Association of America

Othel Moore is hard of hearing. When she moved to Albuquerque, she started attending services at Christ United Methodist Church but says, "I never heard anything in the service." Even with hearing aids, she could not understand what was being said.

Then Christ United installed an induction loop system and, simply by using the telecoils in her hearing aids, she could hear and she could understand. Moore said of the loop/telecoil technology, "It's fantastic— I can hear everything going on."

Like Moore, many of the hard of hearing— 10 percent of the public and increasing at a faster rate than the general population— need more than hearing aids to really hear and understand in some settings. Unlike eyesight returned to 20/20 by glasses, hearing aids don't return hearing to "normal."

What's often needed is a variety of products and services beyond hearing aids and, unfortunately, they are not always discussed by hearing care professionals when they dispense hearing aids.

There are many very capable, caring hearing-care providers but a study found a substantial number of them don't follow guidelines of the American Academy of Audiology. The majority don't tell clients about the world of assistive devices available to supplement hearing aids. Less than half even make certain clients understand how the telecoil in hearing aids can help them hear on the phone. Many hearing aid wearers aren't even told they have telecoils.

This problem is so prevalent that one state, Arizona, has a new law mandating that providers instruct their clients in the applications and use of the telecoil.

So, what is this technology that's so routinely ignored by hearing care providers? A telecoil picks up electromagnetic signals from an induction loop, which is connected to an amplifier and microphone, a TV set, or some other electronic sound source. A loop can circle a chair, a room or an entire home, and anyone with a telecoil equipped hearing aid can pick up the signal from anywhere within that loop. Small neck loops, operating on the same principle, work with cell phones, iPods and other devices.

Because the microphones in the hearing aids are normally turned off when using telecoils, the only sound comes from the loop's signal. Background noises are not amplified, intelligibility of spoken words is enhanced and the hearing aids correct the sound for that particular person's hearing loss.

Induction loop technology is the sound system of choice for many hard-of-hearing people. With such a system, all they have to do is flip a switch. They don't need to be near the sound source or facing it. When used with a TV set in the home, the devices allow the wearer to hear and understand programming while leaving the volume low enough that others don't complain.

Loop systems are relatively inexpensive, easily installed, and require little or no maintenance.
If loops and telecoils are so great, why don't hearing care providers tell clients about them? Why don't they tell clients they could hear in church, at Popejoy Hall, at the Hispanic Cultural Center and many other venues without the hassle of borrowing an infrared headset (probably with dead batteries) that doesn't correct sound like hearing aids do? As stated earlier, there are many very capable, caring hearing care providers but there are also many who may be capable but possibly not as caring and conscientious as they could be.

Short of a law requiring negligent hearing care providers to really provide hearing care (as is the case in Arizona), it's up to those with hearing loss to learn about products and strategies that improve not only their ability to hear, but their quality of their life and that of those around them.

It's up to the hard of hearing, their families and friends, to ask providers what's available besides the hearing aids they've just dispensed; to go to agencies like the Commission for Deaf and Hard of Hearing for guidance in dealing with hearing loss. To go on the Internet and investigate the Hearing Loss Association of America— the national organization that the local HLAAbq is affiliated with. They have a quarterly magazine that's filled with articles on hearing issues.

In short, if your hearing care provider doesn't do his or her job, take charge yourself. Learn all you can about products and strategies that can improve the ability to hear. You might, also, think about finding a different provider.

For more information on living with hearing loss, visit or call the Hearing Loss Association of America in New Mexico, www.HLAAnm.homestead.com, or call (505) 401-4195.


ADVANCE
for Audiologists
January/February 2008 - Volume 10 - Number 1

ALD ApplicationsTell Patients About Their Telecoils
By Stephen O. Frazier

"Our meeting room has an induction loop system. If you have a t-switch, turn on the telecoils in your hearing aids and you'll hear the speaker much more clearly."

That's the announcement at the opening of every Hearing Loss Association of Albuquerque meeting. It's always followed by these questions from first-time visitors: "What's a telecoil? Do my hearing aids have a t-switch?"

We explain telecoils and how they work with the loop system in the room. Then one of us looks over their hearing aids and, more often than not, tells the visitors they have telecoils and a t-switch. Then they ask, "Why wasn't I told about telecoils?"

Only their hearing care providers can answer that question. We believe everyone with hearing aids needs telecoils and should be told how they can help them to hear and understand in situations where hearing aid microphones may not be enough.

First-time users of a loop also tell us they are amazed at how much better they can hear. One, not a first-time visitor, had just replaced his old, non-telecoil-equipped hearing aids with new aids with telecoils. After the meeting he said, "This is the first time in three years attending meetings that I understood everything the speaker said." Another said, after moving here, she went to her church for 5 years for the fellowship because she couldn't hear the sermon. Now that the church is looped, she hears and participates fully in the service.

We've been told by users that they can now watch, hear and understand TV without turning up the volume so high that it drives others from the room. Others say, using a neck loop, they don't have to find a quiet location before they can make a call on their cell phone

We once wondered if it was just local hearing care providers who were ignoring these important accoutrements to hearing aids, but we’ve discovered it happens all over the United States. Carren Stika, PhD, and Mark Ross, PhD, two nationally known hearing care experts, conducted a study that found only 48 percent of audiologists and 42 percent of hearing aid dispensers make certain their clients understand the T-switch. Even when they did explain how it works with a telephone, just under 34 percent of audiologists and only 28 percent of dispensers discussed assistive hearing devices and technologies beyond the hearing aids.

To address this situation we started our own New Mexico initiative (HLAAbq.com/LoopNM.html). Like David Myers' pioneering Let's Loop America (hearingloop.org/loopamerica.htm), Tuscon's Loop Tucson (alohaaz.org/lets_loop_tucson.html) and other groups, we are attemptingto raise the awareness of both the hard of hearing and of hearing care professionals to the benefits of this neglected but very effective technology that adds so little to the cost of hearing aids but so much to the quality of life for those who use it.

In Great Britain, loop systems in public meeting places, churches, transportation hubs and even retail business are as common as the ubiquitous PA system or the omnipresent background music—the first often useless to the hard of hearing and the second just annoying to those with hearing loss. We would like to see the same abundance of induction loop systems in this country.

Through our initiative, a growing number of churches and other facilities in Albuquerque have installed induction loops. Two of the largest, most popular concert venues have purchased and loan out neck loops that convert the signal from their earlier installed infrared system to a magnetic signal that can be picked up by the telecoil in hearing aids, corrected for that particular individual's hearing loss, and sent on as clear, crisp sound.

People suffering from hearing loss are buying their own systems and looping their living rooms for better TV viewing or, in some cases, looping their entire home. They're buying neck loops to plug into cell phones for hands free use—getting the added benefit of sending sound to both ears while getting rid of most background noise. They use those neck loops with hot new tech toys like the IPod. Some have even looped their cars!
Audiologists who promote this technology have found they have patients who are happier because of the added benefits they're getting from their hearing aids. Some, such as Bill Diles, MA, in Sonoma County, CA or Carol Clifford, AuD, FAAA, here in Albuquerque, even bundle a room loop for TV watching with each pair of hearing aids they dispense. They report dramatically fewer hearing aid returns when they train their clients in the use of the telecoil and explain induction loops to them. They also loop an always running but otherwise silent TV in their waiting area and loop exam rooms.

Dr. Clifford often tells of a family that was so excited they could have movie night again when their TV room was looped after their daughter got new hearing aids. The daughter thought it was the coolest thing ever and plans on getting one for her dorm room when she goes off to college.

As a former retailer, I see this situation as an opportunity for hearing care providers to not only better serve their clients, but to improve their bottom line. Albuquerque has a local retailer named All Things Said, who stocks and sells loop systems and peripherals using this technology but, for most Americans, this equipment is available only on the Web or via catalog.

Dispensing offices can purchase induction-loop-related items for resale to clients from manufacturers and distributors such as Wireless Hearing Solutions, Pure Direct Sound and Oval Window Audio, all of whom can be accessed on the Internet. These sources can also provide guidance on how to find a local installer for room and whole house loops for those clients who do not feel technically able to do the installation themselves.

For those hearing care professionals who simply don't want to get that deeply involved in loop technology, we urge them to, at the very least, thoroughly discuss the benefits of telecoils and induction loops with their clients and give them a resource guide to such catalog/Internet retailers as Harris Communications or Weitbrecht Communications where they can purchase these invaluable adjuncts to their state-of-the-art digital hearing aids.
...............................................................................................................

Stephen O. Frazier is New Mexico State Coordinator  of the Hearing Loss Association of America, www.hearingloss.org. Contact him at hlaabq@juno.com.
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