Vignettes - Loop People | Loop Places

I attended a recent “Economic Summit” conference in a large meeting room at a community college. I noticed at least a dozen hearing aid users, many of whom came up to me to talk excitedly about new hearing loop projects in the community. I also noticed the sign that says, “This facility is equipped with a hearing assistance system. Please ask for a receiver.”

So I asked. The fellow on the sound board looked a little taken aback and responded, “Oh, we don’t have those. The time I looked for them they didn’t batteries and weren’t working.” And then he added, “Besides, no one ever asks for them – there’s no demand!”

Obviously, what is terribly wrong with “this picture” is:  1) the sign is misleading at best. 2) They aren’t implementing their system and are probably out of ADA compliance. But 3) how can it be that we aren’t asking for accessible hearing? Are we not attending? Are we too shy? Are non-loop systems unsatisfactory, so we just don’t bother? We need to increase the demand for effective assistive listening systems – especially hearing loops — now!

There is no greater leader and advocate in the country for looping airports that ABQ’s own Stephen Frazier. Following on his leadership coattails and realizing how challenging travel is for our friends with hearing loss, our local Loop Committee advocated successfully with our regional airport management and with our City Council to loop all of the ticket, gate, and rental car counters, with the main gate areas coming next as funding is gathered.

This was during covid, so not much was happening at the airport except for the installation of Plexiglas barriers. Loop Committee members paid a house call to two young staffers who would be in charge of managing the counter installations. We could tell that they were managing the project but had no idea what the end result was going to be. Using a portable loop and telecoil-receiver packs with headphones on the staffers, the gate agent quietly spoke to them through the Plexiglas with the baggage belt running, children squawking, and people talking around them. They were stunned – and convinced. The young woman said, “My brother has hearing loss. What a difference this will make.” The portable loop is a fabulous teaching and demonstration tool!

As the discussion of “personal empowerment” ramps up around the country encouraging people with hearing loss to take more control and, frankly, be a bit more demanding, about the quality of their hearing life, there are more and more tools being developed to respond to this demand. Such tools include microphones that you can hand to someone that connect directly with your hearing aid/CI, and speech to text apps on your phone. They are really important to know about and use as you are able. Some are proprietary to certain hearing device brands; some take more tech savvy to operate. And of course the great universal tool that you can have in your toolkit is your telecoil!

We asked the leader of a Chicago HLAA chapter to go test a donated portable loop placed at a Shedd Aquarium ticket counter. She had never heard of the idea of looping a small space, such as a ticket booth, or hotel reception counter, or a medical office check-in desk. It worked perfectly for her, in spite of the Plexiglas and masks. Yes, she had a personal mic she could hand to the employee, but they were leery of unsanitized devices at the time, and it would work individually, only for her. A looped counter space lets everyone with a telecoil check in at the airport, the restaurant, the hotel, the doctor’s office effortlessly. Start with your hearing specialist’s office… is it looped? Talk about good customer service!

This monthly article regularly focuses on the self-empowerment that can come from “looping yourself” in daily life. We’ve then seen it result in powerful advocacy by telecoil users to encourage the places they frequent to add this essential tool that dramatically enhances quality of life and community engagement. It builds the army of strong, self-advocates.

Now, with OTC [Over The Counter] hearing devices newly on the market, you will most certainly be asked by your friends what you think of them, whether they are a good idea, what features they should demand if they buy them, and so on.

Be sure to bring up telecoils as one of the elements that your friends should consider, along with rechargeable batteries, Bluetooth connectivity, and other features. It appears that many of these OTC devices aren’t automatically including telecoils. Folks with milder hearing loss may decide that they don’t need it for now. But this should be an informed, conscious decision, and your friends will greatly benefit from your knowledge, experience and insight.

This month you get to loop OTHER people!!

Hearing the instructions or the count or the music in an exercise setting can be a challenge sometimes, but the answer isn’t not attending. You aren’t the only one having trouble – but you may be the only one taking charge of your need to hear better.

One friend puts her “connectclip” microphone that pairs with the Bluetooth in her hearing aid onto the shirt of her tai chi instructor. It works great for her. The problem arises when others in the class need to add their devices to his shirt so that each can hear better.

Another friend has been experimenting with her portable loop by putting a microphone near her yoga instructor and plugging it into her loop. It also works well, but only she and perhaps one other student next to her can use it.

A third loves to square dance but can’t hear the caller, and it turns out several other dance club members are pretty much faking it too. A hearing loop in the dance hall would send the calls directly to his hearing aid, and he and his wife can keep dancing.

Each of these spaces, smaller and larger, could benefit from a simple loop installation and serve more than just these three people who want to stay physically active in these group settings. YMCAs and other exercise facilities care about accessibility but may not think about hearing accessibility unless their members speak up.

Sometimes you have to get creative to make an inclusive outdoor sound experience! This summer we have been successfully experimenting with looping three different types of outdoor events where people needed to hear either a speaker or entertainment well. We had been puzzling on different strategies depending on the set-up. Each was a temporary loop installation that ultimately had a big impact.

First, we were asked to loop an out-of-town meeting in a city park gazebo for a disability conference. There wasn’t time to do a site visit, but we knew that we didn’t want to lay the loop out on the ground. It is challenging to protect it from wheels and to prevent tripping. Eugene looper Alan Anttila decided to create a traveling outdoor loop kit. He used 6 PA speaker tripods and strung the copper loop wire around the outside of the gazebo. He attached his driver into the event’s sound system and everyone both in the gazebo and standing outside could hear the presentation clearly.

Next we used the same system to loop a 20×40’ tent for a benefit BBQ and auction. It took an hour to set up. Attendees using telecoils heard all the music, the auctioneer, and raised their paddles generously.

Last night, Alan taped a temporary loop onto the concrete walkways around some seating in an outdoor amphitheater. Bonnie Raitt never sounded better for many attendees! We anticipate that this will lead to a permanent installation.

Looping our lives leads to some creative solutions!

When was the last time you heard someone whisper in your ear?

Nothing demonstrates the power of a hearing loop better than plugging in a microphone on a long cable, turning your back or even leaving the room, and whispering to a person who is trying out their telecoil with a hearing loop system for the first time. In fact, whispering through a Plexiglas window or from 50 feet away convinces most hearing people why loops can make such a difference in the community.

Whispering with a “loop listener pack” and demo portable loop at the ticket counter convinced the  young airport project managers to install 25 counter loops. One of them even realized that her father would benefit from knowing about loops. Whispering a message to a friend using a loop listener pack in a looped board room – that no one else could hear — convinced her to go get her telecoil activated so that she can hear better in meetings. Kids playing whisper games with grandpa on the floor or telling jokes from the back seat of the car is just plain fun!

Explaining an invisible hearing loop system, or Bluetooth pairing with electronic equipment and its uses, for that matter, can be a real challenge. Demonstrating them physically can be a powerful tool in our advocacy toolkit!

As a university town Eugene OR has our fair share of retired professors. A fair share of them have hearing loss, of course, whether or not their spouses have convinced them of that yet! Virtually all of them want to remain deeply involved in academic discussions, lifelong learning opportunities, and civic engagement.

Even pre-pandemic, one friend complained that the men in his Old Guys Book Club were hard to hear. They either “spoke too softly or not clearly enough”, and a couple of them also have Parkinson’s which, along with other conditions, can make it honestly difficult for them to “speak up”. As they distanced their book group ever further, moved outdoors, and wore masks, active participation for Jim was virtually impossible.

So he experimented with one of the portable loops and a plug-in, “omni-directional”, microphone that has a 10-foot cord. It picks up sound within about a 12-foot radius. He placed the mic on a table in the center of the Book Club circle, sometimes closer to the fellows with the softest voices, and has since been able to hear all the conversation. Now a second member does the same with his own personal loop! They simply take their loops with them to wherever the meeting is being held that month.

This is such a clear example of how critical it is for our friends to stay engaged with colleagues and community. As a society we can’t afford to lose the collective “brain trust” that these folks, as well as other community members, provide simply because we don’t support them creatively enough to hear well in all of their social and business environments.

Now these “old guys” are advocating for a loop in their Learning in Retirement classroom and in their apartment conference room. If we “loop people” they will in turn “loop places” for everybody to use!

The advocacy underlying the Loop People|Loop Places concept is the premise that once a person experiences and understands the benefits that hearing loops can bring to one’s quality of hearing life, the person becomes empowered to spread that knowledge to others. Analyzing one’s daily activities with the question “Would a hearing loop help me and/or others hear better here?”, and then acting on it is powerful advocacy and can make real differences in a community.

Tracy Hogan from Springfield, Oregon, recently acquired hearing aids and attended a volunteer-run peer coaching session to experience how hearing loops work. Tracy well understands how ambient sounds – machinery, background music, conversations, etc. – can affect hearing and comprehension in noisy workplaces. We discussed all the different locations where loops can be installed or used on a personal basis to hear more clearly through all those distracting sounds.

Tracy also happens to own a grocery store that is part of a chain! So she instantly decided to make her store much more accessible for both staff and shoppers with hearing loss. First, she turned off the store’s background music program to provide a quieter shopping hour every day. Then she installed a hearing loop in each of the 5 check-out counters. This store doesn’t have a deli/bakery counter, but she would have put one there too.

Next she will set up a kiosk with a continuous feed running through a countertop loop for people to come any time to try out their telecoils as part of our effort to “loop the community”. Through her professional connections and grocery business meetings she will explain the loops to other owners who have heard from patrons that they can’t hear well in their stores but didn’t know what action to take.

Today she wrote: “ I am thrilled this morning. I had reached out to one of our chain’s VP’s last week, asking to have our regular Zoom meetings captioned. I explained to him why and sent him info on how. He replied this morning. ‘I hope we get this turned on for next week and future meetings. I am glad we are doing this, and I apologize for not thinking about it before. Because of you, were likely solving for other Operators that haven’t spoken up yet.’” Each One Reach One, indeed!!

Think about your business connections you could influence to install small loops or use portables for meetings, reception desks, service counters? Show them Tracy’s powerful Facebook testimony and this photo to underscore your points! It’s a perfect example of Barbara Kelly’s call to action for us all to be “accessibility leaders”.

 ————-

Preamble/intro for Barbara Kelly’s article on “accessibility leaders”:

“Each one reach one” is a familiar mantra in the world of grass roots advocacy. At ABQ HLAA we learn from each other by sharing personal experiences, frustrations, new strategies, and successes. The more we learn about hearing loss, the more empowered each of us becomes. Now let’s expand that mantra to “Each one TEACH one”. The “hearing community” needs to learn from you how to create a more inclusive community. As Barbara Kelly encourages of all HLAA members below, we can be a truly noisy army of advocates!

You can picture the dreaded scene – a long table with 10 boisterous relatives all talking at once.

In all honesty, nobody can hear much of anything, but with hearing loss it can feel particularly overwhelming. So just before Christmas I sat down with a family of grandparents, their “kids”, and teenage grandkids to demonstrate how a hearing loop works and to practice using one at home in anticipation of the holiday festivities.

In addition to all the personal benefits, the small portable loops that we have been discussing in this column make for a wonderful teaching tool. Most of the time hearing loops are completely invisible. They seem downright magical and woo-woo! “Walk into this room’s magnetic field and you will suddenly hear everything!”

The portable loop itself visibly demonstrates the 3 physical components required for any loop system (copper loop, microphone, driver), as well as showing how the telecoil user must be in its magnetic field in order to receive the sound signal.

On this day I took along a “loop receiver” pack and headphones so that all the family members who don’t use a hearing device could hear through the loop. Magic indeed happens when I plug in an auxiliary microphone with a 10’ cable, take it around the corner and whisper into the mic, which of course they can hear through the loop even if they can’t see me or hear me directly!

For their holiday dinner, we strategically seated the loop user at one end with the 2 folks he most wanted to hear on either side. The auxiliary mic was placed at the far end. The loop user was able to toggle between the loop’s internal mic for the nearby conversation or the far mic to pick up the other end of the table. Using his telecoil-only setting helped eliminate ambient sounds.

Was it perfect? No. Was it much better? Absolutely yes! Did everybody at the table hear everybody else? Of course not! And they also used the loop in the kitchen, living room and watching TV together once they realized how well it worked to include their family member better in other conversations.

Our Loop Committee Chair has a particularly empathetic and engaged family supporting her hearing loss. But I don’t think they should be considered “unusual” in this regard. Rather, she has done an especially good job of involving them to understand the problem and help brainstorm solutions for keeping her supremely active in the community, in their social life, and in family relations.

First, her husband is a powerful community advocate on her behalf. As an active, amateur musician, he wanted to be sure to keep her engaged in music-making and concert-going as her hearing worsened. He helped articulate to “hearing” friends why looping concert venues and houses of worship was so important. He serves on our Loop Committee with a critically important perspective of what other sites in our area need to be more auditorally accessible.

When she acquired a personal/portable loop and various microphone extensions, she experimented with it in all sorts of settings – from socially distanced wine socials in their gorgeous backyard and book clubs, to family dinners and instant computer audio for all the Zooming and podcasts she couldn’t access well with her Bluetooth. Her teenaged grandson, who has a challenging deep voice, was fascinated with the loop and let her know he and his girlfriend wanted to do everything possible to be sure she could hear them. Her son purchased a loop for his own house so that when she visits they can loop her in immediately. And with the secondary mic on a long cord she can listen to the new great-grandbaby sleeping in the next room or to the grandkids in the back seat of the car.

Friends and family truly WANT to communicate! Letting them know what works or not – and it can take some reminding – means that when they see you or encounter others with hearing loss, they will know better what to do. My motto:  If you can’t beat them, make them join you!

When HLAA-ABQ granted newsletter space for this monthly mini-column focusing on hearing loops, I planned to include short vignettes both on looping places (not necessarily large places such as churches and concert halls) and on peoples’ personal experiences as they encounter or “impose” loops on their daily lives. It’s time for some of those stories!

A couple of years ago, I made a date with one of my company’s board members who has a severe hearing loss. She didn’t fully understand how to access and adjust either her BlueTooth or telecoil program through her iPhone. I also knew she had some important meetings coming up with her attorney and tax consultant, and she wanted to be able to understand them better in those meetings without taking along an interpreter.

I took a WilliamsAV portable loop to her house, and she practiced going in and out of her telecoil program. We talked a lot about how a portable loop can work as a personal listening device. At one point she asked “How are they going to feel if I bring this thing to a meeting?” I answered, “They’re going to feel just fine. They want you to understand them – and they want your business! If they give you any trouble, take your business elsewhere!”

We then took the loop to lunch at a fairly noisy restaurant, where she can “never hear”, and met my low-voiced husband there who she also “can never hear”. The portable loop was on the table, and we were having a very relaxed conversation – which she could hear.

Our waiter arrived. As he started to describe the specials, she suddenly said, “JUST a minute, young man! I need you to speak into this microphone – do you know what this is?” He was momentarily surprised, but then smiled and said, “No, but it sounds like it helps you hear better. I think I need one of those!”

So much for being shy!! She now takes her own personal loop to all of her important meetings and social engagements and loves talking about all the hearing loop work in our community. She has become a powerful advocate and hearing loops have empowered her to speak up about hearing loss.

I’ve missed all of you on summer break, but had a great time seeing Bobbie Rodriguez in July on a family visit up here in Eugene. But just when we thought in-person communication might be getting a little easier, at least up here, we are back to mask mandates. I also doubt that Plexiglas barriers will disappear any time soon.

When HLAA-ABQ granted newsletter space for this monthly mini-column to focus on hearing loops, I planned to include short vignettes both on looping different types of places (mostly smaller ones, rather than churches or concert halls), as well as on peoples’ personal experiences as they encounter or “impose” loops on their daily lives. It’s time for some of those personal stories!

But first, let’s refresh about the idea of “personal loops”. Because of the likes of Steven Frazer, the ABQ chapter has had much more experience than most communities with the idea of looping your homes or personal work spaces. Adding a portable loop to one’s personal toolbag to improve hearing and comprehension in as many places as possible can make a noticeable difference for some people.

The ABQ chapter now owns a couple of portable loops that you can borrow and try out in your own spaces – professional appointments, meetings, at home, social gatherings, the car, etc. – to see if this device can make a difference for you. As promised, next month I will start to share some stories from around the country as friends have been working with these loops.

The idea behind “Loop Your Life” is to ponder where a hearing loop could be one of the tools in your toolkit to hear better throughout your work and personal day. If you ask, “Where do I need or want to hear better and could a loop help with that?” you might just come up with some creative solutions.

Musicians need to hear their bandmates. Actors need to hear their cues. Dancers need to hear their music. And speakers need to hear themselves. They use on-stage or in-ear monitors and other amplification systems to do this. But sometimes it’s not enough for performers with hearing loss.

Looping the stage or speaker platform can make the difference for these professionals to do their work well. Gael Hannan, Canadian comedienne and loop spokesperson, describes her on-stage experiences that included sharing the temporarily-installed loop with her pianist who also had hearing loss. Another temporary loop was designed to help one actor in a vintage radio “live broadcast” performance hear his cues, the music and the sound effects. Two other performers also turned on their t-coils and could hear everything better.

Today in Eugene OR the City is ribbon-cutting 24 newly installed hearing loops at each of the ticket, gate and rental car counters. This exciting development came about after a couple years of gentle advocacy, regular publicity about hearing loss and loops, and timely testimony at City Council when the new airport master plan was presented. So telecoil users are showing up today, celebrating, liberally thanking city officials, and underscoring how important loops are for safe, stressless, equitable, and accessible travel.

But the thanks can’t stop today. Until loops become as ubiquitous as elevators and ramps, it is important to reinforce the owner of everyone you come across.

Consider these stories:  A Eugenean in London told the looped taxi cab driver how amazing it was. He said “You’re the first person to mention it. I didn’t think anyone ever used it.” When we placed a loop at a drug store, the pharmacist predicted that “a couple of their customers have hearing loss and might use it”.

Remember, no one can see you using your telecoil, and therefore the likely assumption is that no one is using their loop. It can be a leap of faith for a business to install a loop, as well as a modest cost. Let them know that their “return on investment” is worth it by sharing your appreciation as well as your business.

We have been hearing a lot recently about the great need and strategies to improve effective communication in our lives  — and, as Gael Hannan so strongly models, to have confidence in taking charge to do just that.

I firmly believe that the majority of the “hearing community” honestly, but fundamentally, doesn’t understand hearing loss. They often think “Hey, you have hearing aids – just turn up the volume!”. It is an understandable, if ignorant, response based on their own experience with turning up the tv or the radio.

Now, think about just ONE business in your community who you could comfortably speak to about the benefit of having a small desk or counter top loop. Pick an easy one – does your family or a close friend run a small company that you frequent? They already understand the challenges of hearing loss, but undoubtedly don’t realize that there is something simple they can do to significantly help their clients.

Next, loan them one of the portable hearing loops your chapter owns for a few weeks – and encourage other telecoil users to pay them a visit and compliment them thoroughly, if not actually give them some business that day. Once they see these results, they are likely to install a permanent counter loop. This is an example of taking charge to “Loop Your Life” – and then you are on to the next business!

If ever there were a time to take charge of your hearing, it’s now! It’s unlikely that all those Plexiglas barriers will disappear soon, even when masks do. It’s high time to insist that you need to hear wherever you go!

Here are two tips that can help you take charge now and in the future. One is a simple business card that you hand out freely during your daily rounds that asks the person to attend to being a more effective communicator with you – they may need to speak up or look at you or speak more slowly or enunciate better – or all of these things. Check the HLAA Get in the Hearing Loop Toolkit website. Or personalize your own message such as “HELLO! I have a severe hearing loss and may not understand your words because of our masks. Thank you for your understanding.” On the back of the card add the suggestion that the location might benefit from having a hearing loop at their desk or counter.

And second, be sure that your telecoil has been activated and your hearing professional has demonstrated how to use it with all of the loops you will encounter more and more. You are the crucial voice in the advocacy for increasing that number of available loops. Won’t it be great when everyone can nicely, but compellingly, say, “Why don’t you have a loop? – I will be back when you do!”

On average we are awake for 5,500 hours each year. Let’s say you attend your looped house of worship weekly, 4 concerts in your looped theatre, and 2 meetings in the looped City Council chambers. That leaves about 5,350 hours where you are awake. During how many of those hours do you want to hear better – some, most, all?

Make a list with 4 columns:  1) Where do you wish you could hear better? 2) How often each week are you in each situation? 3) Are these settings at home, at work, or “in public”? 4) Add some extra red stars next to the ones that are critically important to you as you analyze this list!!

Now examine how you can take more personal control in these situations. Are there temporary strategies that you can request, such as better positioning of the participants? Or are there mechanical strategies you can bring to bear, especially for the regularly recurring situations, such as wireless microphones or small portable or permanent hearing loops?

Your friends, families, and professional acquaintances want to communicate with you. They will do things to assist with this goal that might surprise you! Your critical part of this communication relationship is to get your telecoil activated so that you are always ready to turn it on when you encounter a looped space. Together, we can loop hundreds of places where HLAA ABQ friends want to hear. This column will provide some ideas and “true stories” where others have solved some serious communication problems using personalized loops. Let’s get creative about this and take advantage of all of the strategies that you can bring to bear on the conversation.