More on legislation

When Governor Michelle Lugan Grisham signed HB48 in March of 2019, New Mexico became the 7th of what is now 9 states to have a regulation in place requiring that hearing aid buyers be informed of telecoil technology by their hearing care provider.

Other states have or are attempting to get such legislation enacted and other rules and regulations are in place around the country dealing with telecoil technology.  To see the latest draft of a working list of these rules and regulations, click on the link below.

Ongoing legislative and other initiatives 
of the Committee:

1. The CCA was successful in efforts to get a rule drafted and put in place by the NM Speech-Language Pathology and  Hearing Aid Dispensing Practices Board requiring the counseling of clients in telecoil technology prior to the sale and fitting of hearing aids and also a rule requiring that the sales contract have a statement on it confirming that the counseling took place and indicating whether or not the devices had telecoils.  Both the buyer and the seller are required to initial that statement.

        Posted here is the text of the two new rules. 






2. Installation of hearing loops at the departure gates and other areas in the Albuquerque     International Sunport.  The Director of Avaition has indicated an intention to fund the     project in the next budget which would be followed by a design period and installation and     to be completed in 2021.

        Posted here is the power point presentation that was given to Sunport management 
        seeking the looping of the terminal.





3. Looping of the House and Senate Chambers and all committee meeting rooms of the     Roundhouse (the NM Statehouse).

        The office responsible for A/V matters in the facility has indicated all of those rooms will be         served by multi-channel FM systems with a neckloop/earhphone option by the time the                      legislature reconvenes in 2020 but that the long term plan is the installation of actual hearing         loops in all of those locations.  Then, those with telecoils in their HAs or CIs would use that         feature to access the loop while loop receivers and earphones would then be made available to         any who requested them.


4. With the passage of the "Captions Always On" ordinance by the Albuquerque city council captions must be turned on whenever the set is turned on during normal business hours in all public venus where the TV is viewable by the public.  This  applied to TVs in such locations as sports bars, restaurants, medical and other waiting rooms etc. 

        Now that is has passed, this ordinance will be used as a model for similar ordinances to be         proposed in other major New Mexico cities followed by the introduction of a bill in the legislature         to enact a state "Captions Always On" law.

        Posted here is the text of the new ordinance that was approved by a unanimous vote of the         Albuquerque City Council on November 18, 2019.





5. Consideration of the introduction of legislation that would be patterned after a regulation in     the state of New York that requires an hour of training on ADA compliant and other     assistive listening technology prior to each license renewal for audiologists and hearing     aid dispensers.

        Posted here is a first (discussion) draft of such a bill.