Technology allows those of us with hearing loss to enjoy live events. It is Lipreading Mom’s desire to advocate for this technology right here in my hometown.
As part of the Hearing Loss Association of America, my local chapter submitted a letter to executives with a performing arts center under construction in our city. The center, which is scheduled to open later this year, has the potential to appeal to the hearing loss community with the addition of hearing-assistive, looping technology.
“Looping,” as it is often called, is an induction system that magnetically transmit sounds to listeners’ hearing aids or cochlear implants. The system provides a crystal-clear transmission of sound from a stage’s microphones directly into hearing aids or implants. It’s the best possible sound quality for those of us with hearing loss.
Without the technology, a person who can’t hear well has difficulty at live performances because distractions, such as background noise and audience chatter, are not easy to differentiate from what is happening on stage. In a recent survey of members in my hearing loss group, 47 percent do not attend musical performances as often as they like for this reason. Sixteen percent never do. However, 47 percent stated they would attend a live event as much as possible if they could understand words and music on the stage.
Read more about looping technology in the interesting article below. Any updates about this cause will be posted on my blog.
A copy of a looping article, written by David Myers, is viewable here.
Lipreading Mom 
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