Is my dream of Loops for Daily Living becoming a reality? Things are looking up!

Grocery store hearing loops are becoming increasingly popular across the United States. Even a single hearing-loop-enabled check-out counter is a valuable business investment. To customers with hearing loss, it means “Access.” It tells them that they too are recognized and appreciated.

Announce the presence of active, certified loops on your website! Tell Google Maps. Edit your organization/business “Accessibility” attributes to include Assistive Hearing Loop. How to edit or add: https://t.co/cxtvhWqh1E

In Springfield, Oregon, all checkout counters of the Grocery Outlet store now have hearing loops! Thanks to owners Tracy and Tom Hogan, customers can use the telecoils in their hearing aids and cochlear implants to help them understand speech so much better in the background noise of the store.

Checkout counters can be daunting. So many questions! Found everything OK? Do you want your receipt? Cash or credit? Got any coupons? All I usually hear is something like WhoaWhoa.  While trying to guess at body language, I run my credit card through the reader. Did they ask for my email to send me stuff? Very frustrating!

Tracy Hogan shares that she has bilateral hearing loss and so she can relate to the struggle of trying to hear in a sound-confused environment. Listen to her as she explains how the loop works in her store. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI0vhf9HjqA

Then, along the East Coast Wegmans Food Markets, a company with over 100 stores across 7 States also has installed hearing loops  in their stores.

And of course, there are more grocery stores that have also been in the news for making the shopping experience for the hard-of-hearing easier with hearing loops. Check your local store. Encourage the owner/franchisee to consider a checkout loop.

The important thing for us to remember is that hearing loops are not dead, retro or antiquated. On the contrary, their popularity is on the rise. The travel industry is no longer the only major industry that recognizes the importance of communication access with loops.

As hearing loops spread in the communities, are you ready to use them? Do you recognize the blue-and-white sign with the T in the right-hand corner?  Do you have telecoils in your hearing aids? If so, are they activated? Do you know how to use them? There is no time like the present to ask your audiologist/hearing specialist for details.

In the end, hearing loops do not appear miraculously. For loops to happen we have to learn about them, ask for them and advocate for them. That’s what we do at Loop Minnesota. Join us!

*****

Also visit my website https://hearing-loss-talk.com/ where I post blogs on all sorts of issues concerning hearing loss.