Hearing Assistance Technology & Telecoils

Presenters: Juliëtte Sterkens, AuD & Karen MacLennan, AuD/TSHH

CEUs: 0.1 AAA CEUs

Duration: 1 hour

Instructional Level: Intermediate

Program Focus: Knowledge

Learner Outcomes: Upon completion, each participant in the eAudiology Web Seminar will be able to:

1) Describe three types of HAT and identify which HAT requires a receiver with a neckloop to be used with T Coil equipped hearing devices.

2) List two T Coil programs and how a person with hearing loss may use them.

3) Explain the differences between the SPLIV and SPLITS electroacoustic T-Coil tests and T-coil verification and validation measures.

Description: 

Even with the wide variety of hearing aid technologies available today, many users of hearing aids and cochlear implants still experience hearing difficulties because of poor signal-to-noise ratio listening situations due to the negative effects of distance, reverberation and noise. Hearing loops, FM and IR systems equipped with neckloops are the hearing assistance technology (HAT) mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act in places of public accommodation. These assistive listening systems are meant to improve hearing accessibility by giving listeners access to sound at signal-to-noise ratios that permit better speech understanding. This course will explain the differences in convenience and usefulness of these systems and the role audiologists play in improving hearing access in the community. This course will cover hearing assistance technology and telecoil basics (specifying, programming, verifying and validating T Coils) to improve fitting outcomes that will allow individuals to benefit from using HAT.

Juliëtte Sterkens, AuD serves as the Hearing Loss Association of America Professional Hearing loop Advisor. She has nearly 40 years of experience in the field of audiology and hearing rehabilitation. Educated in the Netherlands in Speech-Language Pathology/Acoupedics in 1979, she focused on audiology after moving to Wisconsin in 1981. In 2008 she learned how improved hearing loop technology was making a US comeback and decided to bring loops to Oshkosh to the benefit of her patients. Retired from private practice in 2012, she has since lectured extensively on the topic of telecoils and the benefits of hearing loops to professionals and consumers in North America and Europe. Her efforts have led to over 715 professional loop installations (including 400+ churches) in Wisconsin and many more beyond. For her work she has received the Wisconsin Audiologist of the Year, Arizona School of Health Sciences 2013 Humanitarian of the Year and the American Academy of Audiology Presidential Awards.

Dr. Karen MacLennan has been an Audiologist for 20 years. She earned a doctoral degree from Arizona School of Health Sciences, a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Teaching of the Speech and Hearing Handicapped and an Associate in Applied Science in American Sign Language Studies. Throughout her professional career, she has provided audiological and educational audiological services in hospitals, private practices, non-profit educational and rehabilitation agencies. Karen also teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in audiology and aural rehabilitation at Long Island University - Post in New York. Her company, North East Hearing, installs hearing loops and other hearing assistance technology throughout the United States. She lectures nationally and internationally on hearing access and hearing assistance technology through a grant from the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA).