Assistive Listening Systems Bulletin 9A : For Consumers

By United States Access Board

Book Id: WPLBN0000703185
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 0.3 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	Assistive Listening Systems Bulletin 9A : For Consumers
Author:	United States Access Board
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Government publications, Access Board, Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board
Collections:	Government Library Collection, U.S. Access Board Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	United States Access Board


Citation APA MLA Chicago States Access Board, B. U. (n.d.). Assistive Listening Systems Bulletin 9A : For Consumers. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.cc/

Description
Government Reference Publication

Excerpt
Excerpt: Why is it hard to hear in some spaces? The farther you are from a sound source, whether it?s someone talking or a loudspeaker, the lower the sound volume will be at your ears. While this distance effect can be overcome by increasing the volume, loudness is not all that is needed for good listening. A hearing loss reduces or eliminates many of the acoustical cues that we use to discriminate between sounds. So people with hearing loss must listen carefully to context, apply lip-reading skills when they can, and look for visual clues to speech content. This can be very tiring and difficult. And if the room acoustics have not been designed with speech perception in mind, it can be impossible. Two acoustical characteristics of enclosed spaces ? background noise and reverberation ? affect speech perception. Background noise is unwanted sound that competes with and masks the sounds you want to hear. The noise may be coming from air conditioning or heating ducts, from various kinds of equipment, or from other occupants and their activities. Who has not complained about the difficulty of hearing and understanding in a noisy restaurant or party? We live in a noisy world that seems to get noisier as the years go by!