Residents Demand New Hearing Devices in Winchester High School Auditorium

More than three weeks after the Educational Facilities Planning and Building Committee (EFPBC) deferred installation of loop technology that would assist students with hearing aids in Winchester High School’s auditorium, residents continue to lobby the committee to reverse the vote.

Loop hearing technology allows users to push a button on a hearing aid to hear what is being said in an auditorium via a thin copper wire that runs beneath the floor. The old high school auditorium had a partially looped system, meaning the technology could only be used in certain areas of the auditorium. When the new auditorium is finished, it will be equipped with FM hearing-assistive technology that operates similarly to radio transmissions, and requires each user to wear an individual receiver around their neck.

Fans of the loop system are not pleased with the decision to go to the FM system, and, despite being in the midst of an $133 million renovation, consider it a step back from the old high school building’s system.

“For any Winchester student with a hearing impairment to go from a looped environment at our middle school to a non-looped environment in our newly renovated high school is simply unfair and not logical,” said Michael O’Brien, chairman of Winchester’s Disability Access Commission in a statement.

The EFPBC had attempted to install a loop system in the auditorium, even delaying completion of the space, which was supposed to be completed in phase one of construction.

Bob Deering, chairman of the EFPBC, clarified to the School Committee that the loop technology had never been part of the design and chose to not to implement it because of uncertainties about how the technology would work with new audio-visual equipment in the auditorium. Additionally, he said the $129,000 price tag was a big risk during a time EFPBC is trying to avoid cost overruns on the new high school project.

“It’s not so much the budget’s tight,” Deering said in a statement. “Its just that we still have two-thirds of the project to complete. We are trying to be very conservative.”