[Colorado-talk] hearing enhancement at state convention

[Lisa Bonderson]

Following is an Article from the April Braille Monitor, regarding hearing enhancement at state convention, written by D. Curtis Willoughby.

 

Again this year at state convention we will offer special arrangements for severely
hearing-impaired people attending convention sessions and the banquet.
This will consist of transmission of the public address system signal over a special
short-range radio transmitter for the severely hearing-impaired.
The NFB of Colorado will provide special receivers for these transmissions to
those needing them.
The receiver-lending will be operated from the sound table inside the meeting room.
Batteries for the receiver will be provided.
Anyone checking out a Federation receiver will be given upon request a miniature ear bud type earphone to use with the receiver.  Along with explaining what will be available, it is important that we explain what will not be available.
The miniature ear bud loudspeaker-type earphone will be the only kind of earphone offered. The receiver requires a 3.5 mm (formerly called 1/8-inch) earphone plug, in case you want to use your own earphone(s), silhouette, neck loop, adapter cable, etc.
You are advised to arrange for such things well ahead of arriving at the convention.
Other than the earphone jack on the receiver, no means of connection to a hearing aid will be available from the checkout table. 

The receiver does not have a built-in loudspeaker.
Many severely hearing-impaired people already use radio systems that employ FM radio signals to carry the voice from a transmitter held by the person speaking, to a receiver in the hearing aid. Some of these hearing aid systems can be tuned to receive the Federation's special transmitters. In this case the hearing-impaired person may simply tune his or her own receiver to receive the Federation's transmitter and will not need to check out a Federation receiver.

Some audiologists and rehabilitation agencies are now buying digital and other FM hearing aids that cannot be tuned to the Federation's frequency.
If you have one of these or if you have any other type of hearing aid, you should obtain from your audiologist an adapter cable to connect from your hearing aid to a monaural 3.5 mm (formerly called 1/8-inch) earphone jack. This will allow you to plug the cable from your hearing aid directly into a receiver you check out from our table.
This will allow you to hear as well as anyone else using one of our receivers.

The transmitter for the hearing impaired will be connected to the public address system so that the signals from the head table and the aisle microphones will be transmitted on channel 36 (74.775 MHz narrow band FM). 
(People must not operate their personal transmitters on channel 36, because that would interfere with the reception by others.) This means that folks wishing to use their own receivers (rather than checking out one of the Federation's receivers) need to have their personal receivers arranged so that they can switch between their personal channels and channel 36.
Some people may need to purchase replacement or additional receivers.
Caution your audiologist that there is more than one channel 36, and he or she
must also verify that your frequency matches our frequency.

Even if your hearing aid is not of the FM type, you may be able to purchase a silhouette,
a neck loop, or an adapter cable to couple the signal from a Federation receiver
directly to your hearing aid. Your audiologist should also be able to help you with this.

The Federation is pleased to offer these services to our severely hearing-impaired
colleagues, and we hope and believe that it will again significantly improve
their convention experience.