Looping opens whole new world for hearing impaired

From: Holland Sentinel, MI - 19 Jan 2003

It doesn't take Don Gebaard long to figure out the difference between how he heard before having his house equipped with a hearing loop system and now.

By DAVID JESSE
Staff writer

It doesn't take Don Gebaard long to figure out the difference between how he heard before having his house equipped with a hearing loop system and now.

"It's a whole new world," he said while sitting in his living room. "It's amazing how much you miss without it. There's no comparison. It's remarkable how much more I hear now."

That's the same reaction David Myers, a Hope College professor, had when he first heard the system in Europe.

A year ago, he started an initiative hoping to make the Holland-area a model looped community.

Now, 34 churches, nine businesses, four public facilities and several Hope College venues have installed the system. Several Holland residents have also looped their homes.

The looping system amplifies sound through a special switch on a hearing aid, wires and a new amplifier, Myers said

A church or other institution that wants to become looped installs the new amplification system and runs a thin wire around the seating area. It then posts a sign alerting hard-of-hearing people that looping is available.

To use the system, a person has to have a hearing aid equipped with a receiver called a T-coil, Myers said. The user switches the hearing aid to the T-coil setting and then listens to the sound, which is piped directly from the existing public address system into the hearing aid.

"It's like a personal audio system," Myers said.

In Gebaard's living room, two small control boxes sit on top of his television. A wire runs down into his unfinished basement, and then around the house.

From the system, he flips a switch and hears the television piped directly into his ears.

A small microphone is mounted on a coffee table next to his wife Pat's seat. She can speak directly into it, and from there right into Don's ears.

She also has a cordless microphone she can wear around the house. It helps their communication, she said.

"If he's down in the basement, I don't have to yell and yell or go down stairs to get him," she said. "I can talk to him in a normal voice."

The system costs about $1,100 plus installation expenses for a system that covers 5,400 square feet. The average home television room costs about $300.

"It's (the initiative) gone wonderfully well beyond expectations," Myers said. "I think this is a community that cares about people and is aware that there are a number of people who are hard of hearing.

"This helps form a launch pad for the next stage. My hope is that in this next year, this initiative will be spreading in a tangible way to Grand Rapids and beyond that."

©Copyright 2000 Morris Digital Works and The Holland Sentinel.