Accessibility Uncovered ♿: Assistive Tech - Hearing Loop

As part of our advocacy, #OneAccessibility, we will share information about differently able and profile one location with accessible trails. Look out every week for this enlightening post.

This week I am going to bring to light an assistive technology called the Hearing Loop. During my senior years in high school I made a new friend in my art class who was often teased and bullied because he was partially deaf and had hearing aids. I wished there was a piece of technology that could help him interact at school without the extra difficulties he was facing.

Fast forward to today; my husband is an electrician and came home last year telling me he will be installing a piece of technology called a Hearing Loop in one of our local private schools. There is one child currently enrolled in the school who needs hearing aids, and the school decided to spend thousands of dollars to install this piece of technology into all classrooms so the student will be able to integrate and understand clearly what is being said during class time. This is amazing, progressive and inclusive. I decided to look into what a Hearing Loop actually is and where I can find them.

I have often seen signs around Sydney with the words Hearing Loop on it but didn’t quite understand what it was for. A hearing loop, also known as an audio induction loop, is a special type of sound system for use by people with hearing aids. The hearing loop provides a magnetic, wireless signal that is picked up by the hearing aid when it is set to ‘T’ (Telecoil) setting.

The hearing loop consists of a microphone to pick up the spoken word; an amplifier which processes the signal which is then sent through the final piece; the loop cable, a wire placed around the perimeter of a specific area i.e. a meeting room, a class room, a service counter etc to act as an antenna that radiates the magnetic signal to the hearing aid.

Here is a great YouTube video describing how Hearing Loops work.

Some places around my home town in Sydney which use Hearing Loop Technology include:

Sydney Opera House

The University of NSW

Event Cinemas

If you have a question, suggestion or contribution, feel free to comment below.

You can read last week’s roundup by clicking here, and check the list of our other articles under “Accessibility Uncovered”.

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Hello @PennyChristie

Thank you for sharing such a informative and wonderful post.

Soon I m going to visit Deaf Reach School and College in Karachi , so I can learn some thing new about these all new technologies.

Thank you again and Shukriya :pray:

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Wonderful. I can’t wait to read all about it @KashifMisidia

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Thank you Penny for sharing information about this device. Now, I will look out for hearing loops at public places and add them as part of accessibility information.

This is really getting interesting, as we learn new things about Persons with Disabilities.

Great job.

@Sorbe @VasT have you seen a loop before?

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This is absolute golden @PennyChristie ,

Thank you for sharing this with us and thank you for tagging me into it @EmekaUlor . This is a topic that I really do care a lot about it, as during high school times my desk mate was death from one ear, and at the beginning she was feeling really shy to relate or communicate with us. The hearing loop is a fantastic solution in my opinion, and I personally didn’t know about the existence of it. Works like Braille for blind people in a certain way and should be more present in schools or conference rooms, in order to provide equal possibilities to everyone.

Thank you again to raise this and brought to the attention of the Community. I sincerely hope that even fewer people would be bullied or discriminated in the future for things like these.

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I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article @PennyChristie ! I was very interested in how the hearing loop would work on a larger scale but the diagram you provided illustrates that perfectly.

As we move forward with our #OneAccessibilty advocacy, I always think to myself wow, architectects have to think about so much when they design a building!. There is so much to take into account, so I genuinely appreciate an accessible building whenever I see one.

Thanks for sharing this as well as your personal story!

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Thank you @EmekaUlor

This topic is very interesting and diverse. It’s so wonderful learning about all the new technology that is helping people with their day to day lives.

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@PennyChristie thank you for sharing your enlightening post. I am feeling grateful for all the new information that I am learning on Connect. By the way, in cases like this is there a hashtag that you’d use to describe places with a hearing loop?

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Super interesting @PennyChristie ! Does the system works whit all kinds of earing devices or is only to people whit cochlear implants?

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Hello @PennyChristie , your working on a very interesting topic. Your post is very much informative. thanks for sharing.

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Hello @PennyChristie

Thank you for a good post and for sharing information…

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@PennyChristie I love this article! I have been in total ignorance about hearing loops. Thnaks to your post I now know what it is!

Thanks a lot!

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@PennyChristie very interesting. I had no clue this kind of equipment existed and it´s amazing they can be installed in facilities such as high schools or others, remarkable! thanks a lot for sharing this wonderful information!

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All we can do to help others interact not limited by distance is Google Maps.

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Very informative, Penny, I want to learn more.