Deaf/Hard of Hearing

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?

hi im new here.....anybody show me how this work, thak u

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.