Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Experiences with hearing loops in common spaces?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Mar 1, 2026, at 9:34 AM, Carol Agate via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:

> In our meetings we always have some members on zoom. The captions are turned 
> on, and their accuracy has been steadily improving.

Takoma Village set up meetings on Zoom during the Pandemic and we kept it. It 
was was a huge relief because it was so clear, so easy to hear. The technology 
was a bit daunting for most members to learn so consult carefully about what 
you need. The negative is that we were no longer all in the same room. 

But many more people came to meetings. And members who were traveling or living 
part of the year someplace else were able to attand meetings. It just took 
practice on the part of the facilitators and others in organizing the meetings.

On 2026-02-28 17:21, Allison Tom via Cohousing-L wrote:

> I have a moderate hearing loss and use hearing aids, but I am constantly
> struggling to hear in meetings in our common house. Some of it seems to be
> about the acoustics of the space, and some about people not remembering to
> speak up.

Advice: Find out how much your members can really hear. 

For years I raised the issue of speaking up and the issue of hearing became 
“only one person can’t hear.” But my concern was not just my ability to hear 
everyone; it was being sure that everyone could hear everyone. How does 
self-governance work if only some people can hear in governance meetings. I 
seem to hear perfectly well except in large rooms even if the large rooms have 
only a few people in them. And some people will not speak up no matter what. 
Asking them to speak up means they won’t speak at all. 

I asked one of our members who I knew was deaf in one ear and had weak hearing 
in the other, how she coped in meetings. She said, “If it is important, the 
facilitator will repeat it.” So she was missing anything said in a meeting that 
wasn’t repeated, which was a lot of stuff. Suddenly some of her off-topic or 
repetitive comments made sense. She was only hearing a small piece of the 
meeting. 

The reason for this is acoustics. All the sounds echo around the room. They 
bounce off the floor to the bottoms of tables and bounce back again. Sound is 
like the images of vibrations in diagrams, than the straight line we think we 
are hearing. Sound goes everywhere, then back again. The less bouncy the less 
blurry the sound is. Hotel meeting rooms are carpeted for a reason. The carpet 
might get dirty, but otherwise hearing would be impossible.

If you want to know who can hear and who cannot or who can hear at least the 
people who speak up, do a private poll asking who can hear and how well they 
can hear. Groups.io and Google polls are very easy to set up. They can be 
anonymous or not.

Don’t just ask, “Can you hear?” or “Do you think we need professional help?”  
Ask can you hear everyone, is listening tiring, do you feel comfortable 
speaking up, etc. Include space for comments. People will have things to say 
that you hadn’t thought to ask about. Like the woman who figured out if it was 
important the facilitator would repeat it so that’s all she tried to hear.

Another member recorded the meeting on their iPhone and listened to it later. 
(So much for participation.) None of these work-arounds were common knowledge 
because everyone was quietly finding personal solutions.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Riderwood Village, Silver Spring MD
Founding Member, 25 years in Takoma Village, Washington DC