The Hearing Assistive Technology Landscape for Hearing Loops and Telecoils Dana Mulvany, MSW (U.S.A.) Differing Abilities.

The Hearing Assistive Technology Landscape for Hearing Loops

and Telecoils

Dana Mulvany, MSW (U.S.A.)

Differing Abilities

Personal Background

Consumer with pre-lingual, ski slope hearing loss

Advocate for people with disabilities

Technological social worker

Consultant (Differing Abilities)

Program planner for this conference

Scope

Other types of hearing assistive technology (HAT) that are legally needed for effective communication access can have an impact on loop systems,

and vice versa…

Effective Communication Access (ECA)

The Americans with Disabilities Act

Requires ECA in public facilities (not religious organizations)

Recent court cases requiring captioning in stadiums

Functionally Equivalent Communication Access

Equivalent (not equal) access to important aspects of communication

Meaning

Sensorially (optimize our senses)

Cognitively

Psychologically

Same ease of access as TABs?

Hearing Loops: Functional Analysis

 Audio loops excel at providing functionally equivalent access to communication for telecoil usersEasy to useVirtually immediateNon-obtrusiveIf compliant with IEC standards,

provides high-quality experienceEqual access (if all seats are looped)

Limitations of Hearing Loops

Visual access still needed for deaf or severely HOH people

Other technologies may cause interference

Can cause unintended interference with other telecoil uses

Other current limitations (monoaural sound, frequency response)

Other types of HAT needed for effective communication access can have an impact on loop systems…

1. Speech to text: Open captioning or CART

(Communication Access Realtime Transcription)

Closed captioned solutions

2. Speechreading support

1. Video devices showing faces

3. Other assistive listening technology

Compete or Complement?

Goal: Provide effective communication access for people with various disabilitiesLegal requirement in some

countriesDHAC (Directly Hearing Aid

Compatible) listening still desirable in conjunction with other technology

Open Captioning or CART

Photo courtesy of www.c2ccaptioning.com

Open captioning (live)

Photo courtesy of www.c2ccaptioning.com

Open captioning (pre-recorded)

Closed captioned solutions

Closed captioned solutions

Closed captioned solutions

Portable computers

Smart phones, hand-held devices

1. Captioning

2. Access to text and images

3. Sign language

4. Video for speechreading

5. Song recognition

6. Future: speech recognition?

Portable WiFi-enabled devices

Portable video devices

Videoconferencing Mobile Devices

Other Wide–Area Assistive Listening Technology:

Current functional advantages

1. Stereo (directionality)

2. Broader frequency response---Good for lower frequencies (music)

3. Confidentiality

4. Portability

5. Individual Control

6. (non-HAT) video description

7. (non-HAT) multiple languages

Competing or complementary?

Can hearing loops complement or accommodate?

Check for non-interference

Synchronization of audio & video

Can people with hearing aids use the technology comfortably?

Other HAT that competes for the telecoil

1.Telephones

2.Devices with or connected to Telecoil couplers (neckloops, silhouettes, HAC headphones)

3.Other loops (rare)

Telephones

Landline

Mobile

VoIP (soon)

High Definition

Telecoil Couplers

Neckloops, silhouette inductors (aka ear loops)

Personal assistive listening technology

Computers, netbooks, iPads, etc.

Video devices (DVD players, etc.)

Videophones or Webcam conversations

Music players

The Need for Personal HAT

Hand-held amplifier

Personal ALS

Personal ALS and alerting system

ALS with multiple sender units

Recommendations:Competing Telecoil Uses

Minimize spillover that could affect other telecoil uses

Minimize unnecessary signals through hearing loops

Make it easy to turn audio on or off

Create areas for telephone use/other telecoil use

Recommendations:Other wide area HAT

Analyze functional advantages and disadvantages

Consider working with the other HAT:SynchronizationNon-interferenceComfort

Other Ideas?

Dana Mulvany, MSW

Differing Abilities

[email protected]

http://dmulvany.blogspot.com