[Access] [sound] Hearing aids and the service

Wed Mar 5 20:17:30 CST 2008

Hi all,

IIIII hear that horrid sound people are talking about, and it about sends me
out of the room.  It reminds me of the sound that they use to make teens
stay away from places...
makes me wonder: is the church alarmed upstairs? it reminds me of that
sound, or are there light dimmers?  They ALSO make that horrid sound...
any what used to be called "haligen?" lights, if dimmed at all, make that
sound; sometimes fluorescent? lights can make it, if the balasts? are off or
the bulbs are beginning to go...
but it's a VERY unpleasant sound.
I think it is not necessarily hearing aids at all but gosh something's
off...

There is sometimes a sound in my house that makes me nuts and I just turn it
all off, unplug everything, wait 30 seconds, then plug stuff back in and
it's better.

Good on all those who will work to try to figure this out...

Blessing to you,
j-m.

  _____  

From: access-bounces at uueugene.org [mailto:access-bounces at uueugene.org] On
Behalf Of uuRuth Ross
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 12:06 PM
To: Access Issues and Discussion
Subject: Re: [Access] [sound] Hearing aids and the service

Katherine, 

Thank you soooo much for writing this! I was astonished and bewildered by
that announcement. I have inserted other comments in your email below at the
###s (pound signs):

On Mar 05, 2008 , at 09:08, Katherine wrote:

On Sunday, there was an announcement at church for anyone wearing hearing
aids to not have them all the way turned up as they would interfere with the
sound system and cause feedback.
I am an Audiologist and I feel concerned about this request, as I don't
believe hearing aids have anything to do with the sound system feeding back.
I have never heard of this before.

### I absolutely agree with you. I HAVE mentioned to ushers in the past that
if they hear someone's hearing aid screeching that they try to locate it and
make the wearer aware--but it's certainly not a feedback problem.

### Rachel, who was doing sound second service last Sunday (March 2), left
me a note: "A member asked about a feedback problem [which I could not hear]
that he has noticed before during moments of no noise. I told him to call
you (Ruth) with ideas of how to stop it. It's a very high frequency that is
mostly heard by the young. Some other person confirmed hearing it."

I [Ruth] can say that during the first service I also heard a
(high-frequency?) sound, but my experience is that the room often has this
sound. I have heard it when I have been in the room with no equipment
plugged in or turned on, and with no lights or furnace on. I believe it must
have something to do with the shape of the room and perhaps all the hard
surfaces. I have been aware of it's occasional appearance for several years.
It goes away after a few minutes.

I would like to make a suggestion to assist people in learning to use their
hearing aids with our sound system. I would like to offer to set-up a table
during coffee time after the services on some Sunday and offer to look at
people's hearing aids, assist them in discovering if they have compatible
technology with our sound system, and demonstrate our assistive devices to
them. I can also assess the status of their hearing aids' condition as a
plus. 

### This is a generous and wonderful offer. I hope we can do this! I will
help however I can.

I am interested in the sound system on several levels. I believe I may be
able to help in reducing the feedback that happens in the system without
having to lose so much gain (volume). I have a theory that I'd like to
experiment with a bit, if we can work with Ruth from sound. 

### I'm very interested in working with you and in hearing your theory. My
experience in the past year is that we don't have "feedback." One exception
is the following: I don't remember exactly when, but on several (maybe two
to four) occasions there WAS feedback--really awful feedback--after the gong
(bowl) was struck. At some point when I was preparing for the sound training
I discovered that the speaker settings on the amplifier had both been turned
WAY high. I returned them to their usual settings and I personally have not
heard anything that I could call "feedback" since then.

I repeat, I'm very interested in working with you on this
situation/question/....

Ruth

copies to: Rachel Cummings, Jake Walsh, Anna Sontag

Any input on this?
Thanks,

Katherine Swem

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