Have you ever gone to church, attended a public reading in a library, a concert, or someplace where your hearing aid picks up noisy background interference? A new technology has come out that can eliminate this problem all together. After being widely successful in Northern Europe, a new technology called a hearing loop is being installed in multiple areas in western Michigan and New York.
These loops, which consist of thin copper wires installed around the edges of the room on the floor, radiate electromagnetic signals that can be picked up by your hearing aids or cochlear implants. The loops cut out everything except for what is being transmitted through the microphone, giving you close to crystal-clear clarity.
Think you need a new or special hearing aid to make this technology work? Think again. The technology that makes this work is called a telecoil, or t-coil, and it is already built into two-thirds of current hearing aids as well as all cochlear implants!
The New York subway is installing this technology into 500 fare booths and Michigan State University has already installed it into their basketball arena. The Hearing Loss Association of America has partnered with the American Academy of Audiology to campaign for more installations of hearing loops across the United States. I think this is a colossal step forward in hearing aid technology and encourage you to write to these associations to get a hearing loop installed in your towns and cities. Let me know your thoughts on this new technology!
