Accessibility for people with hearing
loss means being able to hear and understand communication
and an audio signal in whatever form it takes: face to face
- one on one and in groups; over the telephone; public address
announcements; recorded sound - TV, radio, movies, internet
based; amplified sound – theater, public presentations;
alerting and emergency notifications.
Most people with hearing loss use spoken language, and whatever
residual hearing they have with hearing aids, cochlear implants,
and other assistive technology. They do not use sign language
and therefore sign language interpreters are not appropriate
accessibility accommodations for them. There are laws that
require that people with hearing loss have access to public,
private, federal, state and local government programs and
services and telecommunications services and products. Examples
of ways to provide accessibility for people with hearing
loss include: assistive listening device, (FM, Infrared,
Audioloop), captioning, CART (computer assisted real time
transcription), hearing dogs, communication strategies,
visual and tactile alarms, oral interpreters, Cued speech
transliteration, volume control phones and telecommunications
relay services- particularly captioned telephone.
