It's One of the Best Hearing Aid Features. Many Still Aren't Using It.
A telecoil improves access for people with hearing loss in taxi cabs, performing arts centers, and more. Even with newer Bluetooth technology on the way, it's still worth getting.
The first time Pam Parfitt used her hearing aid’s telecoil, her life changed.
Parfitt, of Santa Fe, N.M., who’s had complex hearing loss for 50 years, had recently gotten new hearing aids, after her audiologist convinced her to make the jump from analog to digital devices, sometime around 2018.
The audiologist had offered her the option to include a telecoil, a tiny wire receiver that is included in some hearing aids and cochlear implants. Telecoils pick up magnetic sound signals from assistive listening systems, which can be installed in public spaces and transmit audio directly to users with hearing loss, reducing background noise and providing clearer sound.
Not long after she got her new hearing aids, Parfitt attended a political rally at a Unitarian church and noticed signage indicating that the church had a hearing loop, which meant she could turn on her telecoil and have the event audio broadcast directly to her hearing aids. She tried it out.
“I could hear every word of the speech. I was over the moon, out of my mind,” she says. She became a hearing access advocate “from that second.”
Parfitt is a retired violinist, and her hearing loss had ended her career as a violin teacher. She’d missed out on enjoying the arts scene—plays, concerts, lectures—that she loved. But now there was a solution. She became an advocate of hearing loops all over town, and she even contributed some of her own money to pay for a hearing loop to be installed at Santa Fe’s Lensic Performing Arts Center.
Hearing loops, she says, are still not as widely available in the U.S. as they should be, but Parfitt is doing her part to change that. “Being an advocate is what gives my life purpose and keeps me sane,” she says. “To see things getting better reduces my level of frustration and gives me hope.”
As with Parfitt, many telecoil advocates describe their first time using a hearing loop as something of a revelation. But awareness of telecoils and hearing loops in the U.S. has never been as widespread as advocates would like, and experts are now trying to combat the perception that telecoils are an outdated technology that’s on its way out.
New Bluetooth technology—called Auracast—is expected to replace existing assistive listening systems technology in the coming years. But it’s still five to 10 years away from being widely available. Advocates say that means right now the best-case scenario for a hearing aid user is a device equipped with both capabilities.
What’s So Great About Telecoils and Hearing Loops?
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, government buildings, businesses, and nonprofits that have any sort of public address system are required to provide what’s called an assistive listening system in any areas where people gather. This applies to places like concert halls, theaters, convention centers, courtrooms, legislative chambers, classrooms, movie theaters, and more. In general, there are three main ways an institution can comply: an FM/RF system, an infrared system, or a hearing loop.
Graphic: Center for Hearing Access Graphic: Center for Hearing Access
It’s the preferred method for many people with hearing aids. In systems where the only options are receivers with headsets, that equipment can interfere with your aids, causing squealing, feedback, or simply poor audio, says Daniel Brooks, a hearing aid user and owner of an assistive listening system installation business, Pro Hearing Loops, in Rochester, N.Y.
“That’s the beauty of a loop,” he says. “You can go into a space, really you don’t have to tell anyone you have hearing loss, you sit and hit a button. As long as it’s on and people speak into the mic, it works really nice.”
Are Telecoils Going Away?
It’s hard to know exactly how widespread the use of telecoils is among people with hearing loss. Groups like the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) have made significant efforts to spread the word to hearing aid users. And, with the help of advocates like Parfitt and others, hearing loops are available in more places across the country, from New York City taxi cabs to Amtrak ticket counters to a variety of performance venues, libraries, and government buildings.
But the availability of telecoils themselves may be declining. And over-the-counter hearing aids, which are an increasingly popular option, typically don’t have them. In the 2026 issue of the Consumer’s Guide to Hearing Aids, which summarizes features and specs of a wide range of prescription hearing aids available on the market, 59 percent of listed models included a manual telecoil (the kind that can be used with a hearing loop) as either standard or as an available option. That’s down from 79 percent of listed models in the 2016 issue, a decade ago. (Participation in the Consumer’s Guide is voluntary; many major manufacturers generally contribute.)
Part of the reason may be that manufacturers tend to market smaller hearing aids as better hearing aids, according to Wynne Whyman, director of advocacy and communication for the Center for Hearing Access. To get a smaller hearing aid, some components, like a telecoil, may be sacrificed.
According to Juliëtte Sterkens, a recently retired audiologist based in Wisconsin who consults with the HLAA, manufacturers will often release their latest hearing aid lines with a flagship model that’s small and doesn’t contain a telecoil. Then they add models to the line, and in those subsequent models, telecoils are more common.
Several experts emphasized that one of the biggest barriers to telecoil and hearing loop use is that consumers don’t know that they’re available and don’t know to ask their audiologists for them. And audiologists may not make it a standard practice to explain what a telecoil is and why they may want to consider one.
That may help explain why, at least among CR members who responded to our 2023 survey about their hearing aids, just 10 percent reported that their prescription hearing aids had a telecoil.
Stephen Frazier, for example, learned about telecoils from a fellow hearing aid user at a support group meeting. “It turns out I did not have telecoils in my hearing aids and had never been told about the technology,” he said. He has since spent more than two decades advocating for people with hearing loss and for the expansion of hearing loop technology. Frazier helped push for a New Mexico law that requires audiologists to counsel patients about telecoils. Yet he says he still gets comments from people who say that nobody told them a telecoil was an option.
Ultimately, Sterkens says, audiologists need to inform their patients about telecoils and how they can help. After all, even the most cutting-edge hearing aid can’t restore a person’s ability to properly hear a lecture or a play in a crowded auditorium. Only an assistive listening system like a hearing loop and telecoil can do that.
“Personally, I think manufacturers and audiologists should be saying, ‘Here are two hearing aids. Where do you not want to hear?’” she says, “instead of saying, ‘Do you want the big one or do you want the little one?’”
Some may also have the impression that telecoils are on their way out because a new assistive listening technology is on the horizon and is built on Bluetooth.
What Auracast Means for Assistive Listening
Auracast Broadcast Audio is the new Bluetooth technology that allows one device to transmit audio to multiple compatible devices in range (rather than the traditional device-to-device pairing of the Bluetooth you use with your phone and accessories). Many experts expect it to be the future of assistive listening.
Here’s how it’s intended to work in the assistive listening context, for a user with Auracast-enabled hearing aids. Suppose you’re attending a play. You’ll enter the theater, then use your smartphone to connect to the Auracast broadcast for that performance, similar to how you might connect with a location’s WiFi. Once you’re connected, the venue’s audio will broadcast right to your hearing aids. (Auracast will also be able to facilitate peer-to-peer audio sharing.)
Brooks, the assistive listening system installer in Rochester, says that as much as he appreciates hearing loops, Auracast will have some advantages. For one thing, it will be a lot simpler and easier for venues to install it, since it doesn’t require the placement of a wired loop, which can require significant investment in infrastructure.
It also won’t necessarily require hearing aids in order for people to use it. All you’d need would be Auracast-enabled headphones. “This is the first accessibility tech that even people who have normal hearing can access,” he says.
Just as you use your phone to pair a Bluetooth device, you’ll be able to search for the Auracast feed you’re looking for. Brooks imagines visiting a sports bar, finding the game you’re interested in, and scanning a code on the TV that’s playing it to connect with the audio for that game only.
You could even, he says, encrypt certain feeds, which could help simplify assistive listening in places where confidentiality is important, such as courtrooms.
Still, experts say, Auracast is a long way away. Brooks is already installing it in venues that are looking to be ahead of the curve. But few consumer audio devices, including hearing aids, are equipped with it yet. That means if you’re in a venue that has Auracast and you want to use it, you’d still need to check out a receiver and headphones or a neckloop.
It also won’t be quite as simple as using a hearing loop, at least for people who have telecoils, since you’ll need to connect via your phone rather than just push a button on the hearing aid itself.
Additionally, international standards for assistive listening systems based on Auracast are still under development. Those standards are not expected until 2027, and should help answer questions about whether Auracast systems will meet technical requirements to ensure they’re ADA-compliant.
What Hearing Aid Users Should Do
Experts say the message for consumers is clear: The next time you upgrade your hearing aids or cochlear implant, make sure they have both a telecoil and Auracast capability. That will ensure you can access existing assistive listening systems with ease today, and that you’ll be ready to take full advantage of Auracast once it becomes more commonly available.
Some peripheral devices, like remote microphones, come equipped with telecoils and may even be Auracast capable. But ideally you won’t need to settle for a telecoil in a remote mic instead of in your hearing aid itself. That way you’ll avoid having to remember to have your remote mic with you (and make sure it’s charged) whenever you attend a public event.
There aren’t a ton of hearing aid models that have both telecoils and Auracast, at least at the moment. The Center for Hearing Access offers a current list. Keep in mind that some Auracast-capable hearing aids may only contain the hardware needed to connect to Auracast, but may not yet have the firmware necessary. Your audiologist will be able to update your hearing aids to make them Auracast-enabled once new firmware becomes available.
