Hard of Hearing is a recognised disability and as such you need to ensure that you can provide effective communication to your service users that may suffer from this particular disability.
Providing a means of communication to a hard of hearing person is easily achievable when you know which is the correct method to use and that is where we can help you. We have experience and knowledge of the different methods available to provide your customer with the communication they deserve.
The preferred method and most popular method would be an induction loop system which allows communication to a hard of hearing person via a facility on their hearing aid. When installed correctly an induction loop system can greatly enhance the audio received by the hearing aid wearer and therefore make them much happier to use your services.
Induction loops, that are installed by trained engineers, will massively reduce the background noise levels received by the listener which instantly improves intelligibility for them and when combined with improved frequency response techniques the benefit to the hard of hearing person is hugely increased.
We’ve installed induction loop systems in lots of different applications from basic portable loop systems to counter loops along with speech transfer systems and intercoms. We have experience in large area loops too working with lots of historic environments such as churches and cathedrals through to the latest modern developments and multipurpose environments such as community halls and museums.
It’s also important to realise that induction loop systems will overspill into adjacent areas but low spill, or phased array, designs can often help reduce this and result in a secure loop system that can’t easily be listened in to. This is particularly beneficial to places that need confidentiality and our work with local authorities and places that deal with other sensitive information has allowed us to build up a wealth of knowledge in this field. In addition to induction loop technology, there are other methods of providing assisted hearing benefits to hard of hearing people, these include infra-red and FM systems.
Infra-red systems work by flooding the required listening space with infra-red light and this is picked up by a neck device worn by the listener. The neck device can be used with a small loop for those hearing aid wearers that have a ‘T’ position but they can also be used with a conventional set of headphones for those hard of hearing people that either don’t have a ‘T’ position or by those who are hard of hearing but refuse to accept it and refuse to wear a hearing aid at all! (We all know one).
Infra-red systems have the added benefit of being easily contained within a certain space as the light will not travel outside the room. This allows multiple assisted hearing solutions to be installed near to each other where conventional induction loop systems simply wouldn’t work. The best example of this would be in a school environment where every classroom needed a system installed.
