Telecoils are an old technology from the late 1930s and most hearing aids have them. They were originally designed to help hearing impaired people hear clearly on the phone. Today, they are used more often in theaters with an induction loop. A room is “looped” with a wire that receives the sound signal from the stage and then transmits it to the hearing aid. This turns hearing aids into something like a custom headset. A California hearing aid impaired group recently tried to pass legislation requiring audiologists to include a telecoil in every hearing aid. I encourage everyone to choose one with a telecoil, but, for some people, they’d rather forgo the feature in favor of either a smaller hearing aid or another feature like rechargeable batteries. If you have hearing aids and aren’t sure if you have a telecoil, you’re welcome to come by and I’ll check. If it’s in the aid, but not activated, it’s pretty easy to do so. I have included a video explanation of how a looped room works with a telecoil in the Hearing In Noise section of this website. Ampertronic has a history of the induction loop on it’s website.