safety alertalert exclamation

If you are in danger, please use a safer computer, call 911 or your local hotline or call the National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233 voice), 1-800-787-3224 (tty). There is always a computer trail, but you can click ESCAPE to leave the site quickly.

Issues

Background noise and excessive reverberation are especially difficult for the person with hearing loss who must work extra hard to discriminate speech. Glare and uneven light illumination make it difficult for people to see lips and facial expressions clearly.  Additionally, some device such as doorbell signalers, telephones, and alarm systems are not loud enough for people with hearing limitations.

Examples of Problems

  • A support group meets in a room next to a street where truck noise is loud. Glare from the windows reduces the visibility and light contrast in people’s faces. A person with hearing limitations quickly tires from trying to hear in a visually poor environment, and stops listening to what others are saying.
  • A survivor in a shelter loses track of time and realizes what she was baking is beginning to burn. She did not hear the oven timer.

Suggested Solutions

  • Everyone benefits from low background noise and short reverberation times.  Reducing barriers for people with hearing loss also reduces the level of stress that everyone is exposed to any environment.
    • Do a review of your facilities at different times of day and during the different seasons. Identify the sources and paths of noise in your buildings.
    • Consider acoustical ceiling tile, or drop ceilings in places that have excessive reverberation. Playrooms and other group activity rooms are high priority areas to reduce reverberation.
    • Consider sound-absorbing panels high on walls and in corners of group activity rooms for additional noise control.
    • Add storm windows to old windows that are poor at blocking out street noise. Makes sure areas around window frames are sealed well. If replacing windows, consider what level of sound protection makes sense given the kinds of outdoor noise exist.
    • Avoid having seating next to heating and cooling systems with loud fans and compressors.
    • Consider options for reducing the noise of ventilation and cooling systems.
  • Reduce glare from windows during meetings, and use multiple sources of light to create an even illumination. People with hearing limitations need to be able to see the faces of people clearly without shadows.
  • All alarm systems need to be visual/flashing alarms. Vibrating fire alarms for use in a shelter bedroom are useful, too. Flashing lights assist those who can’t hear alarm systems. Providers should also make an evacuation plan for people with functional limitations that is not dependent on technology. Access New England, a publication of the New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, has compiled resources on Emergency Preparedness and Accessibility, Spring 2006, available at http://adaptiveenvironments.org/neada/site/newsletter.
  • Signaling devices (e.g. visual or vibratory alarm clocks, telephone and doorbell lights, motion detectors, etc.) help people with hearing limitations.
  • Shelters should consider making a visual/vibrating infant monitor available.
  • Amplification devices or other assistive technologies for communication are in the Communication Environment section Assistive Technologies for Communication.
  • For kitchens consider the following options:
    • Look for audible signals on appliances, and get an extra loud timer to assist survivors with cooking.
    • “Ultra quiet” dishwashers help reduce the way they drown out conversations. A dishwasher with a delay timer helps, too.
    • If remodeling or building new a new kitchen, look for a quiet ventilation system. Some systems even have a remote fan. However people forget to turn it off, if it is an absolutely quiet system.