Effective Communication for Individuals with Hearing Loss

People who have hearing disabilities use different ways to communicate; for example, they may give and receive information through writing or sign language rather than through speech. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that organizations communicate “effectively” with students and visitors with disabilities. The goal is to ensure that communication with students and visitors with disabilities is equally effective as communication with people without disabilities. 

There are many ways to provide effective communication, including but not limited to: 

• Writing communications via pen and paper or devices such as:
  • an iPad,
  • a phone (texting),
  • the UbiDuo - a dual keyboard device that complies with security requirements for confidential communication (available for loan through UDR);
• Real-time ASL Interpreting;
• Video Remote Interpreting (VRI);
• Captioning or CART;
• Speech-to-text apps;
• Remote meeting/event technology such as Zoom, Teams, etc. for virtual “face-to-face" meetings.  Features include video that enables lipreading, audio control, chat box, and ability to utilize VRI and CART (note that enabling the automatic captioning feature, if available in your web conferencing platform, may be helpful but does not provide the level of accuracy necessary for an effective communication accommodation). 

Best practice is to consult with the individual with hearing loss to determine what is effective for them.