Bar Mitzvah Project Leads To Rockland's First Hearing Loop

Joshua Beal was looking for an idea for his Bar Mitzvah project when he learned about hearing loops.

Doctors from the Hudson Valley Audiology Center, based in New City, reached out to his father, Rabbi Brian Beal of Temple Beth Torah, about putting a hearing loop in the Upper Nyack temple. The technology and installation would cost around $15,000, and doctors with Hudson Valley Audiology felt so strongly that a hearing loop would be a great addition to the temple, they offered to put up a little less than half of that money.

That’s where 12-year-old Joshua Beal stepped in.

“I thought that if I was someone who was hearing impaired and didn’t have the same opportunity to hear clearly, I wouldn’t think it’s fair,” he said. “The hearing loop seemed like it would help a lot of people.”

A hearing loop is technology that enhances the ability of hearing aids. Most hearing aids currently are built with telecoil, or T-coil, which has the ability to receive signals in the actual hearing aids. But if there’s nothing transmitting the signal, the person using the hearing aid has to deal with a number of circumstances they might not have any impact on.

“With just a hearing aid, you’re at the mercy of the acoustics in whatever room you’re in,” said Dr. Jeffrey Shannon, associate director at Hudson Valley Audiology. “You’re at the mercy of whatever sound system is in that room, and a lot of times those systems aren’t working properly, or you can’t hear them if you’re not close enough. Or there might be too much reverb. There’s a number of issues you can have.”

What the hearing loop does is it connects a wire to the source of the sound and transmits it to the t-coil in the hearing aid. There has been previous technology to try similar things, but those use infrared and transmits the signal to a pair of headphones.

Shannon said there are issues with that technology, including some which require people to take out their hearing aids to use and if someone or something gets between the headphones and the signal, the signal goes out until there’s a clear path. But Shannon said that a lot of his patients don’t want to use the headphones because they simply make them stick out in the crowd. As for the hearing loop, “it’s wireless, it’s invisible, it’s dignified,” Shannon said.

He and Dr. Angela Loavenbruck, director of Hudson Valley Audiology, have been trying to get a hearing loop in Rockland for about two years. They reached out a wide range of groups, including various houses of worship.

“We always say that hearing is believing,” Shannon said. “We just knew we had to get one loop in the county and then others could see and hear what it does.”

Luckily for Shannon, one of the places he reached out to was Temple Beth Torah and Rabbi Beal, who said they previously had a system in place for the hearing impaired that used headphones.

“We had that system for about 12 years and I think it was used maybe twice,” he said. “Who wants to sit in a crowd of people and worship with these 'Martian ears' on?”

While trying to figure out if he wanted to bring it to the temple, Beal mentioned it to his congregation at a service on one of the High Holy Days, when the crowd is typically at its largest. He told people if they were interested in using the technology, and helping to fund it, to let him know privately. The response was positive enough that Beal felt it would be something useful for the temple.

“We didn’t do a study or anything,” he said. “Enough people showed an interest and thought it would help them that we decided to go for it.”

From the people who showed an interest in the system, Joshua Beal wrote them a letter and made phone calls explaining the technology, as well as mentioned how widespread impaired hearing is. He was seeking about $8,000 for the project. In four to six weeks, he raised about $9,600. With the extra money, he purchased the temple 10 headphones to hook up to the loop for those who don’t have the t-coil technology in their hearing aids, or don’t have hearing aids at all.

“People gave more than I expected,” he said. “I was surprised.”

Temple Beth Torah’s loop, the first in the county, was installed by the end of February. Joshua Beal is excited it is in place, especially since his Bar Mitzvah is in September, and anyone attending it who is hearing impaired will get to listen to him clearly.

By then, he’ll also be well into the second part of his Bar Mitzvah project, where Joshua Beal will go around and speak to other organizations and groups about the hearing loop. He said other temples, as well as churches and mosques, have already reached out to Temple Beth Torah to talk about the hearing loop. Some have even stopped by to see it in action.

The cost was mostly for the installation, and depending on the size of the other facilities looking into the loops it could be more or less. The loop was installed in the synagogue and two large banquet halls at Temple Beth Torah, so they can use it for a variety of events, which they did at a recent comedy night. During installation, they had to cut up the carpet to hide a copper wire throughout the large room to ensure that every seat in the synagogue could receive the transmissions. The actual technology sits in a closet unseen by the congregation.

Rabbi Beal said they have had a few open houses to show people how it works and let them test their hearing aids with the loop. At the first one about a half dozen people stopped by and for the second between 15 and 20 people came out. He added that they held a workshop before the comedy night to show people how the system works, but he still doesn’t have a figure for how many people it is helping.

“I don’t know how many people have used it or are using it a given time,” Brian Beal said. “We just flip it on and that’s it. As long as it’s helping someone that’s good for us.”

He added that the loop is the kickoff for a program at the temple called “Shaareinu: Our Gateway” in which they look to make the temple more inclusive for those with disabilities.

Not only is Joshua Beal an advocate for the technology now, but so is his father.

“This would be a great thing for a movie theater to install,” he said. “They’re large and it would be costly to put one in, but they’d make their money back. It would be great.”

Shannon said they’re hoping other organizations think similarly. He said in addition to religious organizations, he’s started to speak with some senior citizen groups about installing hearing loops in buildings where they meet. He said any group or person interested in learning more about loops should visit the Hudson Valley Audiology website, www.hudsonaudiology.com, or can call the office at 845-406-9991 and he will find time to either talk with or even meet them.

He said they have a hearing loop set up in the waiting room of their office connected to the TV. There are also about 30 to 40 places in New York City he knows of that are looped.

“They’re a little ahead of us, which is to be expected, but I think we’re ready for it to really take off here in Rockland” Shannon said. “Last year I set a goal around this time that we had to get one hearing loop installed in the county by this year. We finally did that. By this time next year, I think it’s possible to get somewhere between 10 to 20 loops in Rockland.”

For more information:

Temple Beth Torah, 330 N. Highland Ave., Upper Nyack, NY
Info@TempleBethTorah.org 845-358-2248

Hudson Valley Audiology
845 406 9991. info@hudsonaudiology.com