Last post Thu, Jul 24 2008 8:36 PM by gargoyles. 57 replies.
I am deaf and am surprised that there are no topics related to accessibility or accomodations for the deaf or hard of hearing. None of the review questions apply to a person who cannot hear. The museum that shows a video but offers no captioning or printed script, the restaurant that offers me a menu in Braille, the airport personnel that cannot tell whether the airport has telecommunication devices for the deaf and my flight home has been cancelled - these are issues that the ADA addresses and compliance is still sketchy.
Will this be part of your site in the future?
I am a closed captioning editor, providing a service for the deaf and hard of hearing community, so this topic is near and dear to my heart as well. I submitted my comments to the feedback forum, so maybe we'll see some changes in the near future.
You're right Mason, we don't have a whole lot of content for launch that is catered to hard of hearing. We need to improve that.
In an effort to help, we do provide the forums. It may be a step in the collective 'right direction' to have a forum dedicated to the condition. What do you think Mason?
Fay
I know a whole bunch of people who might be interested if there was a forum for the hard of hearing. These are adult deafened people. I doubt the culturally Deaf community would be interested because they often do not believe they have a disability and could even potentially be offended by the site title. Nevertheless, those who wear hearing aids, cochlear implants or are profoundly deaf but do not use sign language as their primary means of communication are stuck in no man's land - neither able to fit into the hearing community or the Deaf community and find themselves isolated from everyone.
On the other hand, it may become cumbersome to have a forum for every possible disability. Time will tell if you get more response from those who are hard of hearing or work with the deaf. We definitely appreciate anyone who advocates for us, just as anyone does who has special needs.
My restaurant survey questions would include things like is the background music too loud?If you ask them to turn it down, do they comply or refuse?Do the wait staff speak directly to you or do they avoid talking to you and ask your dining partner for your order?If you do not understand the hostess or waiter, are they courteous in making attempts, including writing, to help you communicate?Is the lighting sufficient to facilitate lipreading?
Other situations besides restaurants would include things I previously mentioned. Where can I find a TTY?Is there assisted listening equipment, captioning, or printed script for the lecture, museum, class?Is the staff familiar with how it functions, and is it in proper working condition? (BIG issue!)In a movie theater that advertises a show with open captioning or closed captioning, is it turned on?(frequently after the movie starts I frequently have to go "complain" that the captioning is not enabled and miss out on a portion of the show)
I'll probably think of more questions later. Thanks for all you are trying to do!
I have met culturaly Deaf people on other disability-related sites (such as livejournal) and some in real life who identify as having a disability as well as belonging to the Deaf community.
Hi! I am also hearing impared. I have a friend who teaches special ed and has a paraprofessional and a students that are deaf. she is looking for a product that will signal through doors. specifically when the student is in the bathroom and needs help the para needs to be able to know when the student needs the help. any ideas on where to look to find that type of product? there are no outlets close, so the device would have to be battery operated, preferably wireless.
Thanks
tara
Tara, there are several companies that sell door knocker alerts that I think might work for this situation. They are intended to alert a deaf person to somebody at the door with a flashing light. They are portable so you could take them to a hotel and put it on your door in case of fire or emergency, somebody knocking at your door would be announced by the flashing light.
I think your friend could use this in reverse. Put the door knocker inside the bathroom and the signaler in the classroom where surely there is an electrical outlet somewhere, with a light plugged into it. So if the student is able to knock for help, that would cause the light to flash in the classroom. Do you think this would work?
Harris Communications and TelTex sell these items, but since TelTex is local for me & I have purchased things from them before, I called them to find out exactly what would work.
Go to www.teltex.com and in the search window put AMRX2 for the Alert Master which would be the device for teachers classroom, and then do another search for 01816 which is the Door Knocker which would be installed in the bathroom.
Hope this helps.
Lori, I live in tornado alley. While my hearing was still declining I had a weather alert radio with a LOUD alarm and text display for what weather issue was of concern. Now I can't hear that any more, and have found that most emergency weather information on the television is not captioned. I see the radar map and the colored areas, but I don't know for sure what is headed my way - flood (seek higher ground), tornado (go to the basement). You get the idea. And while sleeping, of course, I am totally unaware of the storm outside.
Do you know of any assistive technology that could help me feel more secure in this area? My dog is no help, she hides under the bed the first sign of a cloud!
I just got the Harris Communications catalog today, havent had a chance to look at it yet or contact the company, Harris Comm. is local for me, but I will look at teltex. thank you for your input.
Tara
i would suggest you contact the League of hard of Hearing in NYC. They have a catalogue with all these assistive technology products for hard of hearing and deaf individuals. It is called Soundbytes.... give it a shot. Good luck and hope this helps.
Lori
Yup. I'm here for deaf/HOH info. Hope there is some here.
HI I THINK I started to loose my hearing in my late 20's but at first no one believed me. I even got tested and they said I just didn't push the button hard enough because all of a sudden I stopped responding. Duh! This was back in the 70's and you had to push a botton when you heard a sound. Anyway I left it until I was in my late 30's and a co-worker noticed something was wrong and was kind enough to tell me. I went to get the testing and sure enough I had moderate hearing loss. They say the nerve is dying as a result off damage from noise. As most of you know this means there is nothing that can be done to correct the problem and at some point I will likely be totally deaf.
I am 51 now and the hearing is much worse but still able to hear with hearing aids. My partner keeps asking me to go with her to learn sign language. I'm afraid I won't be able to learn it because it looks so complicated and my memeory isn't what it used to be.
So my question is, Is there anyone out there who managed to learn sign language around my age
Boo-Boo
Hi, Boo boo. I started losing my hearing at age 48 and I began to take some freebie sign language classes. Firstly, it is important your partner attend classes with you, otherwise who are you going to use it with?
By age 51 I had 100 percent hearing loss in both ears from Meniere's Disease. (You can view my website at www.menieresresources.org) I started ASL classes with fervor, and I can tell you that you are NOT too old! LOL and also that it is much easier to learn when you still have some hearing than when you don't have any at all and the rest of the class is talking and you are not fluent enough in ASL to understand them and not able to hear either.
Hopefully you will not lose your hearing.
Anyway, go for it! I know you can do it and it has some advantages too - you and your partner can talk across the room without anybody knowing what you are saying
