Kol Association

Kol is the representative organization of the hearing impaired and deaf people in Israel and has worked nationwide since 1997 to improve the quality of life and well-being of hearing-impaired people over the age of 18 through legislation and advocacy, promoting accessibility, raising awareness of hearing loss, training on auxiliary accessories, and encouraging hearing-impaired people to cope with the limitation. The organization works to empower, equal opportunity and integrate the hearing-impaired in Israel in all areas of life, so that they can exhaust their skills, in every field, according to their hearts’ tendencies.

The following is detailed information about the scope of national activity and the various projects the organization operates:

Audiological Consultations:The audiological consultation is provided by speech therapists of Kol who specialize in auditory rehabilitation that enables you to understand the hearing condition and prepare for auditory rehabilitation. The audiological consultations in Bacall allow each person to better understand the process of hearing rehabilitation.

The national line of information and support: an open line for counseling and supporting issues related to hearing loss, accessories, rights, accessibility, dealing with communication difficulties, the heart of social and emotional difficulties arising from the quality of the limitation and the stigma that society has around hearing loss.

Running ‘Listen to You’ information and training stations: Aloud enterprise operates 6 information and training stations across the country. The stations are staffed by hard-of-hearing coordinators who provide information and support to the audience at public hearing institutes about hearing loss, rights, rehabilitation and help cope better, while demonstrating hearing aids.

Running a nationwide “hearing out loud” course: a unique 7-session course designed for hearing-impaired people who want to get tools to cope with hearing loss and existing technologies, as well as receiving tools for dealing with the personal, social and family framework. The course’s designs include: expanding audiological knowledge, familiarity with hearing loss and rehabilitation methods, and expanding practical knowledge – hearing aids and hearing aids, how to use the professionals, assistance with the Hearing Institute and the speech clinician, hearing training, media strategies, expressing personal and family processes and personal empowerment. In addition, the course participants receive personal and group counseling and guidance from Kol’s professionals. The course is taught by a speech therapist and a hearing-heavy instructor.

Operating a national center for lending FM devices:The center was established to enable anyone with hearing impaired persons to benefit from the use of the technology, in light of the high cost of the systems. The center includes a large variety of systems currently available on the market. The loan is carried out by speech therapists in Bacall and includes personalization, training and guidance to the user.

Activate a display center for hearing accessories in Tel Aviv: an explanation of hearing aids – going through options and experimenting with the accessories from the display. The display includes a variety of accessories that enable personal and experiential experience by all technological means: TV solutions, telephony solutions, personal amplification systems for use at home, work and public places.

Hearing aids for the disadvantaged: In order to improve the quality of life of hearing-impaired people whose hands do not obtain hearing aids, and integrate them into all areas of life according to their heart’s inclination, Kol provides hearing aids by contributing to disadvantaged people.

Advocacy activities, promoting rights, accessibility and legislation: The organization operates in this field in several aspects: participation in Knesset committees and preliminary professional committees; representation of the matter of the hard-of-hearing before authorities and institutions (assistance with individual requests regarding non-accessible places, handling the subject of undercover subtitles and their quality, etc.); training and training on audio accessibility; explaining and managing a database of accessible locations; raising awareness among the public; Holding seminars and trainings (e.g. the Society of Speech Therapists, Accessibility Coordinators at the Academy, etc.).

Promoting the rights of hearing-impaired people: Kol worked to get technologies into the health basket (the adult cochlear implant, increasing hearing aid funding for adults over the age of 18), and promoting legislation to ensure the rights of the hearing impaired.

Hearing training for cochlear implant implants: The voice holds hearing training for people who have undergone cochlear implant surgery who have completed the training quota they deserve in the health basket.

Courses Professional workshops and training: dealing with hearing loss, training on accessories, implant preparation workshops, lectures on various topics (speech comprehension, speech reading, tinnitus and more).

Aloud’s hearing car: The hearing-loss project that began in 2010 is part of an overall program for accessing diverse services to the hearing-impaired public, especially in various population cuts in Israel (new immigrants, the Bedouin diaspora and a low socioeconomic population), in order to raise awareness among the population of the problem and how to deal with it, and to reach a greater number of hearing-impaired people who will turn to rehabilitation services throughout the country. The activity includes a lecture on the causes of hearing loss, hearing aids, accessories, implant surgery, audiogram reading, emotional coping, information about rights, and individual counseling.

The “Hand for Equal Employment” lending database is operated by the Migdal Or Center, which deals with the functional and occupational rehabilitation of people with blindness or visual disabilities, and in voice, a hearing-impaired and deaf organization that deals with hearing rehabilitation and promoting the integration of hearing-impaired and deaf people. The database provides accessible technological equipment to people with disabilities in workplaces throughout the country, and is provided to the employer for free for a period of up to six months. It is designed to serve people with disabilities such as vision, hearing and motor disabilities. Borrowing helps in the process of absorption and integration in the work of people with disabilities in a new workplace, and is intended for companies and businesses that want to retain employees who have had a deterioration in their situation or a change in their job definition. The database is also intended for short training (up to 9 months) and preparation for a job interview. Upon completion of the borrowing period, the option will be given to purchase from the loan pool the equipment borrowed for the employee at a discount. Assistance will be provided in receiving funding requests for those eligible from headquarters to integrate people with disabilities

The organization’s achievements:

• Increasing hearing aid funding in the health basket for ages 18 and up.
• Raising awareness of the issue of hearing heaviness among the general public and professionals.
• Full funding in the cochlear implant health basket that helps hundreds of people re-hear.
• The promotion of the Television Subtitles Act, which states that by 2015 all television programmes will be accompanied, both recorded and live programmes will be accompanied by subtitles for hearing-impaired people.
• Complicity in enacting the Equal Rights Act for people with disabilities, including the Accessibility Chapter.
• Complicity in enacting accessibility regulations.
• The establishment of three exhibition and training centers for hearing-impaired people.
• Accompanying the accessibility of dozens of public institutions for hearing-impaired people.
• Distributing hundreds of hearing aids to the disadvantaged.
• Holding dozens of lectures a year in front of thousands of people about hearing loss.

Dozens of people a year receive professional audiological advice and improve their ability to adapt to hearing aids and hearing aids