Sound system at John Muir helps students with hearing loss tune in

At John Muir Middle School in Wausau, WI, improvements are being made every day to help students who are deaf and hard of hearing.

With 10 students who are deaf or hard of hearing attending, John Muir Middle School is implementing new service to help those students from falling behind of their peers through a technical system that wirelessly transports words and sounds coming from the speaker system directly into the hearing aids and cochlear implants of its students. As seventh-grader Jakob Cherek tells reporter Keith Uhlig, “I could hear way better than before.” (Uhlig, Wausau Daily Herald).

For students such as Cherek, attending school assemblies, plays, or other meetings becomes less of a chore and more enjoyable due to the new sound systems that allow deaf and hard of hearing students to enjoy these activities in the same away as their hearing peers.

Installed for $5,000 using special education funds, the new hearing systems allow over 50 students within the Wausau School District that serves as one of the main districts in the region to cater towards students who are deaf and hard of hearing.

As the system becomes more popular spanning outside of school districts and into other public areas of life such as airports, churches, subways, and many more, the system allows those who are deaf and hard of hearing to experience things in a completely new way, even allowing those without hearing aids or cochlear implants to benefit through the use of headphones available within the school.

For people such as Nancy Puetz, Wausau School District audiologist, she hopes to receive more funding for installing hearing loops within the rest of the Wausau School district as well as other public areas within the community to allow everyone, deaf or hearing, to experience things within the community in the same way.

Read the full story here.