Archives of Acoustics, 40, 1, pp. 51–58, 2015
10.1515/aoa-2015-0007

Speech Intelligibility in Rooms with and without an Induction Loop for Hearing Aid Users

Jedrzej KOCIŃSKI
Institute of Acoustics, Faculty of Physics, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Umultowska 85, 61-614 Poznań
Poland

Edward OZIMEK
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
Poland

The paper presents the results of sentence and logatome speech intelligibility measured in rooms with induction loop for hearing aid users. Two rooms with different acoustic parameters were chosen. Twenty two subjects with mild, moderate and severe hearing impairment using hearing aids took part in the experiment. The intelligibility tests composed of sentences or logatomes were presented to the subjects at fixed measurement points of an enclosure. It was shown that a sentence test is more useful tool for speech intelligibility measurements in a room than logatome test. It was also shown that induction loop is very efficient system at improving speech intelligibility. Additionally, the questionnaire data showed that induction loop, apart from improving speech intelligibility, increased a subject’s general satisfaction with speech perception.
Keywords: speech intelligibility, induction loop, hearing impairment, speech enhancement.
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Copyright © Polish Academy of Sciences & Institute of Fundamental Technological Research (IPPT PAN).

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DOI: 10.1515/aoa-2015-0007