Assistive Devices for People with Hearing, Voice, Speech, or Language Disorders

Summary

Government guidance explaining how venue listening systems can serve people with or without hearing aids or cochlear implants.

Key findings

• The introduction under What types of assistive listening devices are available? lists hearing loops, FM and infrared for large facilities, and says these systems can be used with or without hearing aids or implants.
• Under Hearing loop systems and in the telecoil sidebar, the page describes electromagnetic reception through a telecoil or loop receiver. A portable loop receiver with a headset gives access without a telecoil-equipped hearing device. The sidebar distinguishes this from the individually adjusted sound delivered through a person's hearing aid or cochlear implant.
• Under FM systems and Infrared systems, the page describes radio and light transmission respectively to a worn receiver; an additional neckloop or silhouette inductor provides telecoil coupling. The infrared paragraph says reception can be disrupted by competing light sources and cannot pass through walls.
• In the hearing-loop explanation and the telecoil sidebar, NIDCD says direct reception reduces competing background noise; loop receivers with headsets offer similar benefits without sound adjusted to the individual hearing-loss pattern.
• Under FM systems, the page says radio can penetrate walls, so listeners in neighbouring rooms may need different channels to avoid mixed signals.
• Under Hearing loop systems, listeners must be within or near the loop and wear a loop receiver or a hearing aid or cochlear implant with a telecoil serving as the receiver. Portable loop receivers are available for people whose hearing aids lack a telecoil.

Limits

General guidance, with no comparative trial or quantified headset benefit. The date is the displayed last update; the publication number and footer also identify a December 2011 fact sheet. Personal amplifiers and communication aids elsewhere on the page are outside this question's venue scope.

Read the original

www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/assistive-devices-people-hearing-voice-speech-or-language-disorders

Link checked 13 October 2026. We link to the original and do not host copies.

Cited in

• How much do room acoustics and distance limit listening without a system, and what follows for choosing one?Partly answered
• Can people without hearing aids benefit from venue systems through earbuds, headphones or their phones?Partly answered

Cite this source

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