Imagine sitting quietly through a church service and not be able to hear what the pastor is saying. Church sanctuaries are one of many public gathering spaces that can be very frustrating places for people who wear hearing aids, says Pamela Honoré, a local advocate for the hard of hearing.

They don't have to be, though, said Honoré, 42, who was diagnosed with hereditary hearing loss in both ears at age 27.

Affordable technology exists to make public spaces such as churches, theaters and bus stations user-friendly for the hard of hearing. Most people in the United States just don't know about it, she said.

Called an induction loop system, this technology is essentially a magnetic field that is created by installing a thin wire around the perimeter of a room, a specific seating area or an entire building. Once in place, the wire is connected to a public address system - something that most such spaces already have - and persons with hearing aids can tap into the system simply by turning on the telecoil, or T-coil, on their hearing aid.

Looped systems are not new. The technology for them has been around for more than 70 years and European countries have been using it ever since, according to Honoré.

"All the churches, banks - even the McDonald's - in Europe are looped," she said.

One of the reasons the United States hasn't followed suit is because much of the focus on hearing aid technology in this country has been on miniaturizing the aids so that they can't be seen, which eliminates room for the T-coil, Honoré said.

"The desire to hide our disability, because of the stigma that comes with it, has played a big part in why the U.S. hasn't been looped," she said. "There has been a technological explosion of new devices for the hard of hearing, from TTYs (text telephones) to cochlear implants, yet the hard of hearing are still left out at public functions."

Taking holdThe good news is that momentum for looped systems is starting to grow in this country. Michigan and Arizona have looped their airport concourses in recent years, and New York City has looped Ellis Island, the Museum of Modern Art, Yankee Stadium and its transit stations. The city is even looking into looping its taxi cabs and limousines.

Just across the lake, Holland, Mich., is considered the first looped community in America with more than 100 venues sporting an ILS. And here in Racine, two churches were recently looped.

The first was Gethsemane Lutheran Church, 3319 Washington Ave., which installed an ILS about six months ago at Honore's urging. And St. John's Lutheran Church, 1501 Erie St., was looped last month.

The cost of having their sanctuary looped by Metro Sound & Video of New Berlin - which averages about $1,100 plus installation for an area that seats about 400 - was money well spent, said Rosemary Fay, ministry teams coordinator at Gethsemane. And the feedback from members of the congregation has been very positive.

"A lot of people are very excited to be able to finally hear what is being said," Fay said. "Some said it sounds like the pastor is standing right next to them."

The installation of the wire, which is hidden under existing wood trim in the sanctuary, is undetectable, she said.

"The investment was well worth it to be able to welcome more people who are hard of hearing into our congregation."

Distinct advantage

While many churches and other public places already offer portable headsets to those who are hard of hearing, such assistive technology is not helpful to everyone with hearing loss, explained Honoré. Headphones are less expensive than installing an ILS, but the benefits are not really comparable, she said.

Headsets, for example, don't work well for people like her who wear hearing aids - or for her friend Kathy Smith, who has a cochlear implant - because they only increase the volume of sound.

"They don't work at all for me," said Smith, owner of Kathy's Hair Studio on Goold Street and a member of St. John's Lutheran Church.

"People often think that hearing loss is only about volume, but it is really about interpretation of speech - being able to hear the difference between bad and dad," Honoré said.

Because the ILS delivers sound directly to the hearing aid in pure, undistorted form, each person has the benefit of getting sound that is customized for their level of hearing loss and that increases the intelligibility of speech.

"It eliminates all the echoes and reverberations, which take away the ability to understand speech," Honoré said. "It really is amazing. It literally brings people to tears to have that clarity of sound."

Installing an ILS rather than asking people to wear headphones also eliminates the feeling of standing out in a crowd for those who are hard of hearing, she said. It is more hygienic than sharing headphones with other people, and with an ILS, the person next to you won't be bothered by excess volume.

Honoré's quest to educate the public about looping systems comes from years of her own struggle to hear in places ranging from the grocery store to public performances she attends with her children. Her mission, however, goes far beyond herself and her hard of hearing friends.

"More than 31 million Americans are hard of hearing and most of them are younger than retirement age," she said. "The majority of soldiers coming back from Iraq will be coming back hearing-impaired and many of them are 20-year-old kids."

After writing a paper titled "Loop America: The Induction Loop System for the Hard of Hearing" for a class at DePaul University, Honoré decided to become an advocate for the cause. She has produced brochures which explain the concept and is working to get legislation to support such efforts at both the local and state levels. For more information about the ILS, contact Honoré at (262) 488-4883.

"I think it will make a better quality of life for so many people, not just in our community but throughout the nation," she said.