Hearing-Impaired Conventioneers

Hearing-Impaired Conventioneers

A New Service for Hearing-Impaired Conventioneers

by Curtis Willoughby

From the Editor: Curtis Willoughby is a member of

the NFB's Research and Development Committee and head of our Ham Radio Interest Group.

Here is his announcement:

This year at National Convention we will offer a

new service to severely hearing-impaired people attending convention sessions and the

banquet. Many of these folks already use hearing aids that employ FM radio signals to

carry the voice from a transmitter held by the person speaking to a receiver in the

hearing aid. At state and local meetings hearing-impaired Federationists often place their

transmitters at the head table to be used by the president and others addressing the

group.

This year at convention the Federation will

provide a transmitter for such systems. It will be connected to the PA system; the signals

from the head table and the aisle mikes will be transmitted to all those who have their

hearing aid receivers tuned to the Federation's channel.

To use this system, hearing-impaired delegates

must tune their receivers to channel 36 (74.775 MHz narrow band FM). They must not have

their own transmitters tuned to channel 36 since that would interfere with reception by

others. This means that they need to have their personal receivers arranged so that they

can switch between their personal channels and channel 36. Some people may need to

purchase replacement or additional receivers.

This announcement is printed now to allow as much

time as possible for those interested to make the necessary arrangements before

convention.

The Federation is pleased to offer this new

service to our severely hearing-impaired colleagues, and we hope and believe that it will

significantly improve their convention experience.