ADA PUBLIC FORUM
Washington, DC
May 3, 2005
Title III
Introduction
Self Help for Hard of Hearing People, SHHH, is the nation’s largest organization for people with hearing loss. SHHH exists to open the world of communication for people with hearing loss through information, education, advocacy and support. I thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on the impact of Title III.
With 28 million and counting hard of hearing and deaf Americans, hearing loss is fast becoming the largest disability demographic in the United States. And as 76 million baby boomers progress into their fifties, our responsibility to address the needs of people with hearing loss has never been more pressing.
Compliance with Title III of the ADA
Comments we have received from our members and from other consumer groups for hard of hearing and deaf Americans portray Title III as still problematic in several areas. From healthcare to transportation to entertainment, America’s businesses are failing to provide consistent, thorough, and operative forms of accommodation to hard of hearing and deaf consumers.
Rather than overwhelm the Committee with specific claims of non-compliance, I’d like to focus on four key problems: a lack of training and education of staff, inconsistency of accessibility provided from facility to facility, provision of inappropriate accommodations for hard of hearing people, and the need to have the revised ADA made final.
Need for Education and Training
The staff of public facilities do not receive training to understand the needs and rights of hard of hearing and deaf people. Even when a facility such as a hospital or theater has assistive listening devices, they most probably are not working, and the staff is either unaware of their existence, or does not maintain them in working order.
The ADA has been effective in requiring larger, more prominent hotel chains to adopt standard accommodations for hard of hearing and deaf patrons. But smaller and less expensive hotels and motels are often not in compliance and may not even be aware of Title III regulations. Comments from our members describe rooms without visual fire alarms, televisions without captioning technology, conference halls without assistive listening devices and manager resistance to hearing dogs. There may be wireless Internet access in every room but not a single TTY or amplified telephone in the entire hotel.
Inconsistency of Compliance
There is a wide variation in the level of compliance. Consumers have no way to predict what access they will find in public places. There is no consistency from one facility to the next. Sadly, when a facility is accessible it is often the result of consumer advocacy and not voluntary action on the part of the facility.
As a hard of hearing individual, when I walk into an unfamiliar hotel or hospital or museum I have no idea what services will be available and if they are in working condition. Title III was designed to provide guidelines for accessibility in public places. Though most hard of hearing and deaf individuals would tell you that the implementation of Title III is inconsistent at best. Consumers are growing weary of advocating for the access they need each time they want to use a facility. Yet, if accessibility is to become more than just an illusion, this must be a mutual effort. SHHH recognizes this and everyday we do our best to educate and empower our members and the millions of Americans with hearing loss.
Inappropriate Accessibility for People who are Hard of Hearing
A continuing problem is the tendency to see all people with hearing loss as having the same accommodation needs. Though hard of hearing and deaf people can benefit from many of the same accessibility options such as captioning and Relay services, there are still far too many situations where a sign language interpreter is provided for people who are hard of hearing and actually need ALD or CART. Since many people who are hard of hearing lose their hearing after 19 years of age, their first language is English, they like to speak and use whatever residual hearing they have through hearing aids and cochlear implants. Less then five percent use sign language as their primary way of communicating and therefore Sign language interpreters are in most cases not an appropriate accommodation. This continues to be a problem in public places that provide interpreters in the belief that they have made the event accessible to all people with hearing loss.
Need to Make the Revised Accessibility Guidelines Final.
In 2004 the Access Board published recommendations for revised ADA accessibility guidelines to make them clearer, harmonize them with other accessibility laws, and building codes, and revise scoping. This was a ten-year long process with heavy involvement from consumer groups. The Department of Justice has to adopt the new recommendations and that needs to happen as soon as possible. The needed revisions have been identified and now they need to be made official. Action on the revised ADAAG is long overdue.
