Case Study
Workplace design for a teacher

This is a school or a state government.

The woman is hard of hearing and only able to perceive acoustic information, e.g. spoken language and signals, to a very limited extent. Verbal communication with her is only possible to a limited extent - especially when several people are talking or there is background noise. Due to her disability, audible information must therefore be amplified by assistive products and background noise must be filtered so that the woman can perceive it acoustically.

The woman is a teacher and teaches at a school.

Based on sound and speech audiometric measurements and advice from the Technical Advisory Service of the Integration and Inclusion Office and a specialist store for hearing aid acoustics, the teacher opted for Behind-the-ear hearing aids in combination with an FM system. The hearing aids have switchable hearing program curves and directional microphones with a zoom function. The zoom function is particularly useful for improving hearing in conversations with several people. The directional microphones significantly improve directional hearing. In order to achieve normal speech perception, the sound pressure level (volume) must be increased using the hearing aids and the background noise filtered out. To further improve speech perception in the classroom, the hearing aids were supplemented with an FM transmission system. The FM system is a radio system that transmits speech from the source (the pupils) directly to the teacher's hearing aids. To achieve this, there are several microphones with transmitters distributed on the pupils' desks. The spoken word is transmitted through the respective transmitter on the microphone to the receiver plugged into the hearing aid via an audio shoe or adapter and from there directly into the teacher's hearing aids. Noise is therefore not transmitted and the teacher can move freely around the room while maintaining good acoustic perception.
Together with the pupils, the teacher tested her new hearing aids in conjunction with the FM system. Everyone was immediately impressed by the improved communication. Even pupils in the back rows could be understood as clearly as if they were sitting right in front of their teacher. Even with spontaneous utterances and interjections, the teacher can recognize which pupil is speaking based on the pitch and accent.

The hearing aids were funded by the state's aid office for civil servants with a "fixed amount" and the FM transmission system with the corresponding accessories for the hearing aids (audio shoe, radio receiver and microphones) was funded by the Integration and Inclusion Office. Advice was provided by the Technical Advisory Service of the Integration and Inclusion Office and a specialist hearing aid acoustics store, which was responsible for setting up the assistive products as well as providing advice and sales.