The hearing impaired community will soon be able to experience the Missouri Theater a little more clearly with the addition of a looping system.

Pat Dillon with the St. Joseph Sertoma Club said it’s a project that has been in the works for quite some time.

“Looping is something that is done to a facility or building so that people with hearing aids can tap into the sound system,” Dillon said. “Anyone who is sitting on the first floor which is the looped area we’re going to do will be able to click on their hearing aid, if it has what’s called a T-coil in the hearing aid and it would automatically pull the sound through the sound system.”

The project will begin Monday.  Dillon said the hope is to get the entire system set up and ready to go by Tuesday afternoon.

“Kind of a copper tape that has to be laid out along the floor of the theater, that needs to be put down.  It all needs to be synchronized, tied into the sound system, tested and all that,” Dillon said. “Volunteers from our Sertoma Club are going to put in time also to help reduce the cost.”

Total cost is anticipated at around $15,000.  He said the St. Joseph Sertoma Club and the City of St. Joseph are splitting the bill.

“Our club was only going to be able to fund enough of it to do just one little section of the theater and we really didn’t want to do just one little section or one seating area we wanted to be able to do the entire first floor,” Dillon said. “It just makes the Missouri Theater once again more open and accessible for folks in our community.  There’s a large population of folks that have hearing loss or hearing disorders and this project just opens the arts back up to them.”

Dillon said the looping system will work for anyone on the first floor. He said the system should be easy to use.