Products: Loans
Vision Aids
ATECH Services maintains a number of low vision aids, such as CCTV, magnifiers, canes, etc. that can be borrowed for trial and short term use. Many of these items may require a physician's approval to use. Contact Carrie Hoeckele at 226-2900 to find out what is available for loan. Click here for a complete list of Low Vision Aids from the NH Vision/Hearing Network.
FM Systems
The IMC coordinates the long-term loan of FM assistive listening systems for use by students who are hard of hearing or Deaf. What follows are the available program options:
- FM Loan Program (No Cost to School District): Loan of one (1) fully operational FM system per student per year. Includes all necessary supplies for school year, troubleshooting and in house diagnosis of problems. The school is responsible for any parts replacement, maintenance and/or repair costs. Note: This refers to currently available inventory ONLY—the program is only able to loan out what is currently in stock within the program, and we may not be able to honor some requests for equipment loan if all available inventory has been depleted.
- Replacement Supplies Contract ($200.00): Includes A, as well as replacement of batteries, battery charger (1), microphone (1), antennas (2) and headsets as needed.
- Full maintenance contract ($500.00): Includes A and B, plus diagnosis and repair of unit.
NHVNH is NOT responsible for costs associated with calibrations or earmolds for any FM system.
Procedure for Long-term Loan of an FM System
The equipment must be recommended by a certified audiologist and should be included in the IEP.
- The student's team requests the loan of equipment from NH Vision/Hearing Network by completing a written request for the loan, which includes the recent report from an audiologist that recommends such equipment. The team indicates in its request when they will attend the training on the proper use, maintenance and trouble shooting of the equipment. Due to the high cost of this equipment, it is highly recommended that teams send at least one representative to this training each year, to ensure proper care of the equipment.
- If the equipment is available, a NH Vision/Hearing Network consultant will either personally deliver or arrange for delivery of the equipment to the school. NH Vision/Hearing Network will deliver the equipment in good working order and with all parts intact, including batteries.
- NH Vision/Hearing Network consultants are available to assist schools in keeping the equipment in working order. For those schools that choose the “no-cost” option, if a piece of equipment is lost or broken, the school will pay all costs associated with repair or replacement. Replacement parts and repair contracts are available for a fee.
- Consultants will provide training to members of the student's educational team regarding the educational implications of hearing loss and how to best instruct students who are using an FM system in the classroom. Because the provision of technology is only part of the answer, schools are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this training.
Large Print and Braille Books
If your school has a student using large print or Braille books, you must plan ahead to be sure that the books and materials that the student will need are available at the beginning of the school year. Orders for these books and materials must be placed no later than May 15th of each year to ensure September delivery. NHVHN is happy to assist schools in processing these orders. We have established relationships with many vendors, and can use these connections to obtain books at the lowest possible price. If the books you need are already available, we will arrange for a loan at no cost to you. If books need to be created, we will locate the appropriate vendor and provide you with the costs as soon as they are known. Although schools are encouraged to contact Carrie at NHVHN for specific budgeting advice for their individual students, we have provided some general budgeting guidelines for schools as a starting point.
- Large Print Books: Because some of the books a student needs may be available for loan, or available to purchase with American Printing House for the Blind funds, it can be difficult to predict with any degree of certainty exactly how much large print books may cost a school district in any given year. However, using past experience as a guide, we recommend that schools plan to spend $1,500.00 - $2,500.00 per year for large print books. Handouts and shorter reading assignments can be created on a copy machine, and electronic files can be enlarged by increasing the font size on the computer before printing out the file.
- Braille Books: A commonly used rule of thumb for anticipating the cost of Braille textbooks for a student is to budget for $1000.00 per the student's grade in school. For example, a second grade student's books can be anticipated to cost $2000.00, and a tenth grader's may cost $10,000.00. Again, for more specific information on a particular student, please contact NHVHN.
ALS and MS Loan Closet
The REM is proud to assist the Northern New England Chapters of the ALS Association and the MS Society by maintaining their respective loan closets. This equipment is available at no cost and for as long as needed, for people registered with their chapters.