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Residents of Washington Commons were all smiles as they toured their future homes on June 14! Be on the lookout for future site tour dates.
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Yes you heard that right. Last week, Jeff Klus of Copper Loop Assistive Listening Devices, was in our future Commons dining room with his assistants installing a copper hearing loop. What is a copper hearing loop and why would we want one in our Commons dining room? It turns out that a hearing loop gives superior listening to people with hearing loss during activities that use a microphone or sound system – such as a meeting, an educational program, or just watching a movie in the evening. How it works: A hearing loop is a copper wire that is installed in the ceiling or the floor (in our case the ceiling) in a room to provide an electro-magnetic field that connects the sound system directly to an individual’s hearing through the t-coil, or telecoil, a small copper coil in their hearing aid. It’s a science. Installing an effective loop requires a quantitative assessment of the amount of steel or other metal in the vicinity of the hearing loop. Before installation, Jeff took numerous magnetic measurements to determine how much copper wire he was going to need to offset the magnetic pull of the steel in the building. To achieve what he wanted, the installation effectively covered the whole room by providing copper wire around the edge of the room on the ceiling and then back and forth in approximately 4 foot wide strips. The hearing loop will provide excellent sound within the room under the copper coil.  Why we want this: Hearing loss is common. It is the third most common health condition following heart disease and arthritis. We want all our members and guests to hear clearly when we have our meetings and other events that utilize a microphone. This will be the place where we hold our monthly general meetings, as well as other community events. Additionally, we expect to make our Commons dining room available to others and this will enable them to use it with the knowledge that the hearing will be accessible for everyone. We know that hearing is one of our senses that can diminish over time; the hearing loop will make a big difference to our continued ability to communicate effectively with each other as we age in place.
Some communities in the Bay Area and elsewhere have many public venues with hearing loops. One of our members is excited to be going to the Oregon Festival of Music in Eugene this summer at which all of the venues are “looped”. We expect that this installation at our community will provide a wonderful benefit to our own members and inspire other in the community to provide similar accessibility. Yes, we’ve been looped and we’re excited about it. Read more about hearing loop technology here. And more about telecoils and hearing loops HERE! |
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