Whiting installs loop for library patrons with hearing loss

A hearing loop has been installed in the Whiting Library Community Room to provide seamless delivery of sound to those with hearing aids or cochlear implants attending meetings, workshops, presentations and performances.

Whiting Library Board of Trustees chair Bruce Parks, left, with Charlea Baker of the HLAA in the library community room with new hearing loop equipment. Click photo to enlarge.

The hearing loop is a memorial gift in honor of Helen Pratt Ladd, and made possible by a grant from the Ashgate Foundation. In the future, the Whiting Library would like to purchase receiver units to aid those with hearing loss but without hearing aids.

A hearing loop is made up of a copper wire encircling a room and connected to a sound system. It transmits sounds electromagnetically to a telecoil – tiny copper coils that act as wireless antennae – in a hearing aid or cochlear implant. The telecoil bridges the space between listener and source eliminating most background noise.

The Hearing Loss Association of America estimates that 10 to 15 percent of a community’s population has some degree of hearing loss.  In a population the size of the Chester-Andover region, that means that 360 to 540 area residents currently experience diminished hearing. Not everyone who wears a hearing aid knows about the teleCoil feature.  Often the coils are not offered or seem an unnecessary, although surprisingly small, additional expense.
Chester resident Charlea Baker of HLAA suggests talking to an audiologist. For more information, click http://www.Hearingloss.org. Also, HLAA is interested in starting a local chapter and would welcome inquiries at dkayak@vermontel.net.