April 2001

In 1997 the Access Board, which develops accessibility standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other statutes, received a petition for rulemaking from a parent of a child with a hearing loss, requesting that the ADA Accessibility Guidelines be amended to include new provisions for acoustical accessibility in schools for children who are hard of hearing. Several acoustics professionals, parents of children with hearing impairments, individuals who are hard of hearing, and a consortium of organizations representing them also have urged the Board to consider research and rulemaking on the acoustical performance of buildings and facilities, in particular school classrooms and related student facilities.

In June of 1998 the Board published a Request for Information (RFI) to gather public input on this issue . The Board sought comment on a variety of issues in the notice and indicated that it would determine a course of action after evaluating responses to the notice. Alternatives included research, rulemaking, and technical assistance on acoustical issues. Approximately 100 comments were received in response to the RFI. The preponderance of the comments were from parents of children with hearing impairments and from professionals in acoustics and audiology. Few comments were received from school systems.  The information received was summarized in a follow-up notice published in November 1999. 

Commenters made a persuasive case that some education problems may be related in part to poor classroom acoustics. Research submitted in response to the RFI indicates that high levels of background noise in classrooms (much of it from heating and cooling systems) so compromise speech intelligibility for many young children (pre-K to10) that their reading, communication, and learning skills may not be developing adequately. Because they are neurologically immature and lack the experience necessary to predict from context, children are inefficient listeners who require optimal conditions in order to hear and understand. Those who miss key words, phrases, and concepts must struggle to keep up and may later do poorly academically and suffer from behavior problems.

At particular risk are children who are experiencing temporary hearing loss from otitis media (as much as 15% of the school age population, by a recent Centers for Disease Control analysis), kids with mild to moderate permanent hearing losses (classroom noise and reverberation compromise the usefulness of hearing aids), kids with speech impairments, kids who have learning disabilities, kids for whom English is a second language, and very young children generally.

Several European countries--Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Italy, and the U.K.--have already adopted acoustical standards for school design and construction. Both Washington state and New York codes contain requirements for classroom acoustics. Building codes across the U.S. also regulate noise in residential occupancies. U.S. school systems cited in a 1995 General Accounting Office report identified acoustics for noise control as their number one environmental issue. School construction is again on the increase in the United States and much public and political attention is now being focused on education issues.

The Working Group was expanded with the addition of representatives of the Alexander Graham Bell Association (AG Bell), Self Help for Hard of Hearing People (SHHH), the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), The American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Council of Educational Facility Planners (CEFPI), the Educational Audiology Association (EAA) and the American Academy of Audiology (AAA), the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), and the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM). In addition to the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Working Group members from the acoustical professions represented the Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE) and the National Council of Acoustical Consultants (NCAC). Both the Access Board and the U.S. Department of Education also participated.

The Working Group completed a final draft in January 2001and submitted it for review and ratification to the ASA/ANSI Committee on Noise (S-12). Once the standard has been ratified, the Board will pursue its enforceability. It is likely that the new standard will be submitted to the International Codes Council during its Fall revision cycle for reference in the new International Building Code. This course of action is consistent with the Board’s goal to take a leadership role in the development of codes and standards for accessibility and with the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995, which requires Federal agencies to consider the use of private sector standards where appropriate.

For more information, contact Lois Thibault, the Board's Coordinator of Research; phone:  (202) 272-5434, x132 (V), (202) 272-5449 (TTY).

Resources on Acoustics

The ASA has prepared a helpful bulletin, "Classroom Acoustics: A Resource for Creating Environments with Desirable Listening Conditions," which provides a general overview of the problems and solutions concerning classroom acoustics.  This 16-page guide, which is available from ASA, offers a supplemental resource for architects, educators, and school planners for use in new construction or renovation of existing learning spaces.  Two workshops on classroom acoustics (Los Angeles, 1997 and New York City, 1999) presented by the acoustics coalition resulted in published proceedings available from the ASA (New York, NY). ASA has also developed an acoustics checklist for classroom construction. 

There are a number of journals and magazines that have published research on classroom acoustics and children with disabilities: 

• The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell) offers a new monograph, "Classroom Acoustics: Understanding Barriers to Learning," printed in The Volta Review, vol. 101, no. 5.  Further information about AG Bell can be found at www.agbell.org.
• Also available on the AG Bell website is an article, "Classroom Acoustics," by Carl C. Crandell, Ph.D., Joseph J. Smaldino, Ph.D., and Karen Anderson, Ed.S.
• Copies of the 6-page ASHA (Rockville, MD) position paper, 37 [Suppl. 14], includes a comprehensive bibliography. 
• The Summer 1998 issue of Educational Audiology Review contains a wealth of information on classroom acoustics issues, and includes a useful bibliography. 
• EAA (Tampa, FL) also can provide copies of "The Sound of Learning", a 4-page brief on classroom acoustics published in the October 1997 issue of The American School Board Journal. 
• Guidance for design professionals on classroom acoustics was published by the Council of Educational Facility Planners, International (CEFPI ), 'Teaching in the Dark', by John Erdreich, PhD, in Brief on Educational Facility Issues (July 1999), available on the CEFPI website. 
• Volume 13, Number Two (Second Quarter 1999) of Contact Magazine, a publication of the Cochlear Implant Club International, Inc. (Washington, DC), contains an article entitled "Modifications to Mainstream Classrooms for Children with Cochlear Implants," by architect Franklin M.V. Pepi, AIA. 
• The paper on the location of absorptive materials to control reverberation, "Optimizing Classroom Acoustics Using Computer Model Studies," by Rebecca Reich and John Bradley of the Canadian National Research Council, was published in Canadian Acoustics/Acoustique Canadienne, 26(4), 1998.

Textbooks

Acoustics, Charles M. Salter Associates, William Stout Publishers, San Francisco 1999; ISBN 0-9651144-6-5.

Acoustics and Noise Control Handbook for Architects and Builders, Leland K. Irvine and Roy L. Richards, Krieger Publishing Co., Malabar, FL.

Acoustics and Sound Systems in Schools, Frederick S. Berg, Singular Publishing Group, San Diego, 1993.

Architectural Acoustics, Madan Mehta, Jim Johnson, and Jorge Rocafort, Prentice-Hall, New York, 1998.

Classroom Acoustics, T. Finitzo-Hieber, in Auditory Disorders in School Children, Thieme-Stratton, New York (1988, second edition).

Concepts in Architectural Acoustics, M. David Egan, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1998.

Deaf Architects and Blind Acousticians? A Guide to the Principles of Sound Design, R.E. Apfel, 1998; ISBN 0-9663331-0-1.

Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings, "Acoustics," Stein, Reynolds, and McGuiness, New York, 1996.

"Acoustical Guidelines for Building Design," E. Wetherill, in Encyclopedia of Acoustics, Wiley, New York, 1997.

"Noise Control in U.S. Building Codes," Greg Tocci, in Handbook of Acoustics, Wiley & Sons.

"Room Acoustics," C. Crandell and J. Smaldino, in Assistive Devices for the Hearing-Impaired, Allyn & Baon, Needham Heights, MA, 1994.

Training

Acoustics coursework is available on-line and in presentations sponsored through the professional organizations that represent architects, interior designers, and engineers. Manufacturers of acoustical materials develop and sponsor seminars on acoustical issues and publish guides and manuals for design professionals. A curriculum and visual aids for a tutorial on classroom acoustics is being developed by the University of Kansas under the aegis of the Acoustics Coalition.

Links

Acoustical Society of America
Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
American Academy of Audiology
Classroom Acoustics
Classroom Acoustics Listserv
General Accounting Office Reports on School Facilities
National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities
Northern Virginia Resource Center - Classroom Acoustics
Quiet Classrooms Noise Pollution Clearinghouse