Page 32 - Fall 2007

Standards News
AUDIOLOGISTS AND ANSI STANDARDS
Laura Ann Wilber
422 Skokie Boulevard Wilmette, Illinois 60091
Audiologists generally are famil- iar with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard ANSI S3.6 American National Standard Specification for Audiometers that defines the characteristics of audiometers and includes threshold values for air-conduction and bone- conduction. However, there are many other ANSI standards that are also important for audiologists. These standards describe the characteristics of a piece of equipment; describe how that equipment should be used; or provide normative values to be used with the equipment.
Among the standards used in audiology are standards for audiometric test rooms, audiometers, acoustic immit- tance devices, the procedures for obtaining pure-tone thresh- olds, and for the “0” threshold values for various transducers. All of these standards have been developed by volunteers who are either expert in the specific areas or certainly quite knowledgeable about them. Although these standards are not of themselves laws many of them are referred to in laws and regulations and must be used when complying with the requirements of those legal documents. Standards are designed to specify what aspects of a particular piece of equipment should be measured and the required perform- ance characteristics within specified tolerances. In all cases, they serve as a base for checking equipment or for carrying out a test procedure.
Generally, standards are used because they provide a baseline for the manufacturers and users. One then is confi- dent that an individual was tested in the same way, using the same normative values on comparable equipment in other settings that use the same standards. Thus, results can be compared over time with more certainty. Sometimes stan- dards are used because their use is mandated by state or fed- eral legislation. For example, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires the use of test rooms that meet specific ambient noise standards and requires the use of ANSI S3.6-1969. A state licensing law may require that audiometers used in testing conform to specific standards. Sometimes standards are mandated by certifying bodies such as the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the American Board of Audiology (ABA), the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO), or the Council for Accreditation of Rehabilitative Facilities (CARF).
“Standards are designed to specify what aspects of a particular piece of equipment should be measured and the required performance characteristics within specified tolerances.”
Although there is no specific fed- eral legislation that states that audiometers must be calibrated to meet the specifications in ANSI 3.6-2004 there may be a state law or Federal reg- ulation that specifies that, in order to test hearing and comply with the regu- lar, an audiometer must meet those requirements.
Most of the standards used in our field are developed under voluntary, consensus standard procedures prom- ulgated by ANSI. It is important to understand first of all, that ANSI is not a Federal agency. It is a federation of
organizations interested in establishing voluntary standards for use in industry and elsewhere. It was founded in 1918 as the American Engineering Standards Committee to “ensure that U.S. voluntary standards would be produced in a man- ner which eliminated or minimized waste, duplication of efforts, and conflicting standards.” Around 1928 the American Standards Association was founded. In 1966 its name was changed to the United States of America Standards Institute. Finally, in 1969, it became the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)1,4
It is important to understand that ANSI does not devel- op standards. It uses various committees composed of volun- teers to write the standards. ANSI then reviews the process under which the standard was developed and gives its final approval, allowing the standard to be designated an “American National Standard.”2 The American Speech- Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) are both organizational members of ANSI, although only the ASA is an accredited standards developer. ANSI currently recognizes over 260 standards developing organizations.3 Most “ANSI standards” that deal with acoustics or aspects of sound—including hearing—are actually developed by the ANSI-Accredited Standards Committee S3, Bioacoustics, which is sponsored by the ASA. That organization has as part of its mission the overseeing of standards dealing with acoustics. It administers the secretari- at for standards related to acoustics.
There are currently four Accredited Standards Committees (ASCs) in the Acoustical Society’s Standards Program: Accredited Standards Committee ASC S1, Acoustics; ASC S2, Mechanical Vibration and Shock; ASC S3, Bioacoustics; and ASC S12, Noise. Notice that in each case the letter and first numbers of a standard’s designation (for example, ANSI S1.1-1994 (R2004)) refer to the committee
30 Acoustics Today, October 2007