05-20-99 vn.
Hard of hearing (HOH) people are well
aware of the constant embarrassments they suffer in
trying to participate in a world where verbal
communication is constantly increasing.
This was well expressed by Paul Saevig
in his article, "Across The Kisser." He tells of various incidents and the damaging
results that occur to HOH people in their daily life.
Situations of which normal hearing people have no
awareness.
Yet these pernicious injurious
incidents pale when HOH people find themselves in a
Courtroom situation where good hearing is vital. Here HOH
people find themselves totally helpless, as their most
valued resources become potentially violated, subject to
circumstances beyond their control. Their life savings,
their reputation, a critical work or personal
relationship one or all, may be at stake
subject to the HOH person's ability to hear and
communicate normally.
With the acoustics and space of the
average courtroom causing sound reverberations, hearing
becomes difficult and misunderstandings occur. Add to
this the legalese language, along with the stress of
trying to hear as well as the stress of the litigation
itself, and the HOH person now realizes this is probably
the worst of all possible acoustic situations. And, the
relief is very limited if any at all.
The HOHA answer to this is to utilize
the existing courtroom electronic System, and provide a
low cost FM transmission process that provides superior
hearing for those who to use it, including HOH people.
To explain; courtrooms now use tape
recording devices to record the testimony of all
participants. The words are picked up by microphones
which are wired to a receiver, as it then sends the words
to the tape recorder machine.
By attaching a transmitter to the
receiving device, it can also send the words (wirelessly)
to small FM receivers.
These receivers can then have
individual headsets plugged into them (or a neck loop by
a hearing aid wearer) and the sound can then be picked up
very clearly, not only by HOH participants but by others
as well.
To offset overlapping of sounds from
courtrooms, each courtroom can have its own FM frequency.
Volunteers are needed here.
Experience in Courtrooms (Judges,
lawyers, etc.) electronics, etc. will help.
Please contact us by email: info@hohadvocates.org
