Summary
A maker's 21-page guide to the assistive listening requirements of the 2010 ADA Standards, with its list of advantages and disadvantages for RF, infrared, loop and Wi-Fi systems.
Key findings
- Presents audio over Wi-Fi as one of "four types of wireless assistive listening", alongside RF, infrared and loops, while noting that the ADA's Advisory 706.1 names three (loop, infrared and FM) and that section 103, equivalent facilitation, allows other technologies that give substantially equivalent or greater accessibility.
- Lists for Wi-Fi: listeners can use their own smart device, it is user friendly and expandable, has unlimited channels and uses existing network infrastructure; against it, reliance on the Wi-Fi network, dependence on an app when a personal device is used, and possible extra latency when listeners use Bluetooth devices.
- Lists RF as budget-friendly with wide coverage (up to 3,000 ft) but not secure; infrared as secure and suited to confidential rooms but indoor only and complex to design; and loops as direct to telecoil hearing aids and discreet, but costly, intrusive to install and limited to the looped area.
- Explains that venues must provide receivers under Table 219.3, at least 25% of them (no fewer than two) hearing-aid compatible through neckloops, and that receivers are still needed where a loop serves every seat, though the neckloop minimum then no longer applies.
- States that about 80% of hearing aids dispensed in the United States have telecoils, citing a local HLAA chapter's web page.
- Lists "Simple to set up and use" among the advantages of RF systems (p. 11).
Limits
A maker’s guide to the law, which states that it is not legal advice; it contains no test data, and the advantages and disadvantages are the maker's own. The 80% telecoil figure rests on an undated chapter web page. The paper ends by pointing readers to the maker's own system recommendation tool. It is dated 25 October 2023 on its last page, although the file sits in a 2019 upload folder. Its version of Table 219.3 gives 20 plus 1 per 50 seats over 1,000 for 1,001-2,000 seats, where the ADA Standards give 35 plus 1 per 50.
Read the original
www.listentech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ADA-White-Paper-2023-10-25-vA1-WEB.pdf
Cited in
- Which hearing devices can receive which systems?Open
- Which systems satisfy the ADA and building codes, and does a listener's own phone count?Disputed
- Auracast, hearing loop, infrared, RF or Wi-Fi: which suits which room?Disputed
- How many receivers and neckloops does each code require, and how should a loan pool be run?Partly answered
- How many listeners carry a telecoil, an Auracast-capable device or a smartphone?Disputed
- What do listeners prefer, and how often do they use venue systems?Partly answered
- Where do hearing loops fall short: metal, spill, noise and upkeep?Partly answered
- How much delay does Wi-Fi streaming add, and when does it matter?Not reliable yet
- What does Wi-Fi streaming need from the venue's network and from listeners' phones?Partly answered
- Where does infrared assistive listening work, and where does it fall short?Partly answered
- Which radio bands can venue FM and RF systems use, and what limits them?Partly answered
- What does each system cost to install and to run over its life?Open
Cite this source
Listen Technologies. Understanding the Assistive Listening Americans with Disabilities Act. 25 October 2023. https://www.listentech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ADA-White-Paper-2023-10-25-vA1-WEB.pdf (accessed 9 October 2026).
Every finding here cites its source, and who funded each source is labelled. This site does not recommend products. Found an error or a missing study? Suggest a correction.