My recent experiences with assistive technology at the movies and the theater have been disappointing. Unfortunately, I am not alone. Assistive technologies for people with hearing loss are often unavailable, and even when they are, many times they do not work as they should.
Improvements are needed, but without data, venues are often resistant to advocacy efforts around communication access for people with hearing loss. We need to show how important assistive communication technologies are to our community and explain which ones work best. Collecting data is the first step in creating change.
Share Your Views on Assistive Technology
A new survey hopes to document the experiences and preferences of consumers with hearing loss about the various assistive communication technologies currently found in public venues like theaters, places of worship, convention halls, and the like. In such settings, even with hearing aids, understanding the spoken word can be problematic, preventing people with hearing loss from fully engaging in the proceedings.
We hope the survey results will help guide service providers to the technologies that best serve our access needs.
Will you help by sharing your views?
About the Hearing Access Survey
The survey was developed by the Committee for Communication Access in America (CCAA). Learn more about the members here. The committee partnered with the Frost Center for Data and Research at Hope College on the survey design and data analysis. They will also help with disseminating the results. Frost Center staff provide an extensive breadth of data and research experience, knowledge and skills. We thank them for their assistance on the survey.
The committee plans to share the results widely. Targeted communities include hearing device manufacturers, hearing care providers, architects, as well as the general public. Results will also be available on the CCAA website.
Please Share Your Views
We invite anyone in the United States with hearing loss or an auditory processing disorder, whether or not they currently use hearing assistance, to take the survey. It has 30 questions and should take 10 to 12 minutes to complete. Please respond by September 30, 2023.
Feel free to share the link with others in our community too. The more data we collect, the more robust the results will be.
Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. When we work as a hearing loss community our advocacy efforts are more impactful.
Readers, what are your favorite assistive communication technologies?
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I would dearly love it if Airports were accessible. Who can hear the announcements over loudspeakers? They have monitors at every ticket counter- why can’t they put up the announcements on them?
Absolutely! I have seen some progress lately. There were even captioned announcements at one United gate! Still, more work is needed. Thank you for sharing your concerns.
Rosie -There is a growing number of US airports that are addressing this issue. They’re using hearing loop technology in various forms at different locations in their terminals – boarding gates, ticket and information counters, baggage return etc. Nearly two dozen airports ranging from major hubs like Minneapolis and Phoenix to smaller airports like the one in Oshkosh, WI have installed loops. The technology is also found in most major international airports in Europe and Australasia. A list of “looped” airports in the US and many foreign countries can be found at http://www.loopnm.com/News.html.
Good news! Thank you for sharing this information.
I completed the survey. For as far as we’ve come, there is still much to do.
Thank you for completing the survey! And I agree…