Jacksonville Airport Provides Accessible Communication
Editor: We just learned that the feds will soon be requiring airports
and airlines to caption virtually everything that is conveyed via voice,
and we say, "It's about time!" And now we see that the Jacksonville, FL,
airport has nearly completed its project to provide just this kind of
access.
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May 2008
Due to advocacy efforts of Judy Martin of the Jacksonville Chapter of
the Hearing Loss Association of Florida and Joan Haber, Chair of the
Florida Coordinating Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the new
Jacksonville International Airport's concourse will have exciting new
features to assist travelers with hearing loss! The new concourse opens to
incoming passengers the evening of May 6 and to all passengers May 7. The
Official Ribbon Cutting and Grand Opening ceremony is May 9.
Airport executives Rich Stroup and Bob Molle report the airport has
installed TTY's and are ordering a videophone, plus all pay phones will
have volume control.
Public Service Announcements will be displayed on the Flight
Information Display System (FIDS) as a scrolling text and these
announcements will display text of what is being said verbally through the
PA system. All the televisions throughout the airport will have the
captions on all the time. Efforts are being made to get all gate
announcements displayed in real time text format. This is something that
will happen after the Concourse opens as they are doing their research on
this and getting the airlines to agree to help foot the bill.
"I am very pleased with Rich Stroup, Bob Molle and the Jacksonville
International Airport's willingness to go above and beyond the call to
accommodate people with hearing loss. I am also grateful to Judy Martin of
the Jacksonville Chapter of the Hearing Loss Association, who brought the
news of the construction of the new to our attention in time to advocate
for the accommodation," said Chairperson Joan Haber.
It is estimated there are nearly three million citizens in Florida who
are deaf, hard of hearing, late-deafened, or deaf-blind. The Florida
Coordinating Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing was established by
the Florida Legislature in 2004. Its mission is to serve as an advisory
and coordinating body which recommends policies that address the needs of
deaf, hard of hearing, late-deafened and deaf-blind persons, as well as
methods that improve coordination of services among the public and private
entities and to provide technical assistance, advocacy, and education.
