Forum Proceedings

The Stakeholder Forum discussions were based upon the information contained in four White Papers disseminated to participants prior to the meeting. Each of the White Papers was developed into a topic area for group discussion. Participants were organized into two sets of four groups based on their expertise or area of interest.

On the first day everyone was divided into their assigned groups and participated in focus group discussions on one of the four topic areas. The following morning each person participated in a second topic area. This method allowed everyone to be involved in two of the four topic areas and increased the number of people involved in creating the problem statements.

Participants in the discussions represented all stakeholder groups identified in the project outline. A heterogeneous group brings a greater variety of perspectives to the discussion. This method has proven to be extremely useful when evaluating the reality of products in the market and how they interact with the user and their environment. The method is also helpful when evaluating issues that are important to product design, development, manufacture and distribution.

Four moderators lead the four sessions. Each moderator was responsible for their topic area on both days of the Forum. Moderators led each group with a script developed from the White Papers as well as additional information gathered during the project's earlier interview phase. A team of technical support personnel who had been involved in the initial research of material for the White Papers was also available to clarify key issues within the group's discussion. As well, T²RERC staff acted as transcribers to document relevant issues from each session. To ensure accuracy of the documentation, each group reviewed the transcript before the session was completed. All group discussions were made fully accessible to participants with hearing impairments by using real time transcription and captioning; recording statement summaries on flip charts; and providing infrared listening systems for all groups.

Participants were informed of the process that would be followed during each of the three-hour discussion groups. Each moderator followed a common protocol outline but they were given an flexibility to adapt their interview techniques to suit their personal style, and more importantly to adapt to the dynamics of the group itself. This is in keeping with the focus group philosophy of creating an open environment for discussion with the freedom to react to what the group has experienced rather than responding to questions identified by researchers. The moderator's role was to ensure that the discussions remain relevant to the topic area with the ultimate goal of identifying technical barriers to the development of "next generation" hearing technology.

The protocols developed for group discussion included six steps:

1. Establish a common knowledge base for all participants. Issues discussed include personal experiences with products and technologies; human factors; environmental factors; safety; service; maintenance and other product related issues.
2. Identify current technologies that pertain to the topic area and discuss their limitations and advantages. For example, "What types of hearing aids and assistive listening systems are on the market?," and identify their benefits and/or limitations as they relate to the experiences in the discussion section above.
3. Converge on top technologies meeting important end-user needs and addressing current industry limitations.
4. Identify specific design or consumer requirements to achieve the "ideal" product. Each participant was encouraged to develop criteria or design specifications of the perfect product (ideal) without limitation of current technologies used in the industry.
5. Identify and define the technical barriers that currently constrain developing the ideal device.
6. Review notes from discussion to ensure participants agreed with conclusions.

On the final afternoon representatives from each discussion group presented the results of their group to the full delegation of Forum attendees. Attendees were given the opportunity to contribute to the report if they had additional information or comments that needed to be included.

The reports from each topic area were collected by the T²RERC and were used as the basis for writing the problem statements found within this publication

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