Action Group to Drive Universal Standards for Hearing Accessibility Established by IAHA

More than one billion people globally have a hearing difficulty and many have unequal access to service, information, and entertainment due to legislation for assistive listening being unevenly implemented and enforced throughout the world.

The group’s launch was prompted by the emerging standards for Auracast broadcast audio. It includes representatives from user organizations, manufacturers, and industry bodies such as EFHOH, EHIMA, and Bluetooth SIG, in addition to IAHA. Its purpose is to ensure that legislation and standards are technology agnostic, are structured to be verifiable and enforceable, and to drive venues to provide the broadest level of hearing accessibility.

The group will also lend weight to local organisations that communicate the benefits of assistive listening to venues and provide education on the characteristics of an effective system.

As a first step, the group will be creating a “gold standard” for regulations which will inform the approach to take in any given region.

Chaired by Andrew Thomas of IAHA, with Vice Chair Andrew Bellavia of AuraFuturity, the working group is now formalizing its structure, assessing needs, and outlining the range of possible actions in the areas of advocacy, education, and end-user empowerment in addition to addressing the regulatory landscape.

“The advent of new technologies to assist people to hear well is a good time for us to be examining standards and legislation to the benefit of the end user,”

said Andrew Thomas.

“IAHA is the ideal organisation to serve as a resource and drive progress towards universal availability of effective assistive listening systems for people with hearing loss.”

To learn more about IAHA, please visit the IAHA website.

SOURCE: IAHA