communications access in transportation for people
with hearing loss
Travel is difficult for people with hearing loss, because
they are often denied communications access on commercial transportation.
Ever been frustrated while traveling, because you
couldn't understand what was being said? Then you will relate to some of
the stories and information on this page. Communications problems
can make traveling a real nightmare for people with hearing loss.
There are some companies that understand the travel
problems of people with hearing loss and attempt to arrange travel that
avoids those problems. See the discussion on companies that provide travel services for people with hearing loss
in the resources section
for additional information.
Read what people with hearing loss had to say about air
travel in the air travel survey
conducted by Northern Virginia Resources Center.
June 2001 - One of our readers thought about a way to
improve communications in airports and came up with the idea of Text
Pagers in Airports. Naturally, some of our other readers also had
thoughts on this topic. If you've ever been frustrated at not knowing
what's going on in an airport, you should read these articles.
July 2001 - JAL Introduces Magnetic Slate to Assist in Onboard Communications
April 2002 - Suit Claims Lack of Access at SF Airport
August 2002 - Aviation Consumer Disability Hotline Opens
November 2002 - DOT Issues Guidance on
Access at Airport Security Checkpoints
June 2003 - With the summer vacation season at hand,
many of us will be flying somewhere in the next few months. The U.S.
Department of Transportation has set up a hotline for travelers with
disabilities. Here's the scoop!
July 2003 - There's actually more to the previous story
than we knew at the time. The situation with the Department of
Transportation looks like a great opportunity to really
improve communications access while flying.
March 2004 - Think the US is leading the way in access
for folks with hearing loss? Maybe not!
December 2004 - Are we FINALLY going
to have airport announcements captioned?
July 2005 - US Disability Law Applies to
Foreign Cruise Ships.
July 2005 - How has the terrorism threat affected air
travel for folks with hearing loss? Joan
Cassidy's report on an SHHH Convention workshop provides lots of
information and several perspectives on this important topic.
September 2005 - The Department of
Transportation is considering a change in rules regarding assistance
dogs on airplanes. The proposal would require, in the case of a full
plane, a disabled person to buy a seat for her hearing dog, wait for a
later flight, or have the dog travel in the cargo hold!
December 2005 - SFO to Install Message Screens
for the Deaf - "Passengers
with hearing disabilities will be able to read public-address
announcements on dozens of large video screens at San Francisco
International Airport in the coming months under terms of a
lawsuit settlement announced Wednesday." Full
Story
March 2006 - Here are Cheryl
Heppner's synopsis of the DOT's proposed rules and instructions on how
to file your comments!
April 2006 - Hearing-impaired
may drive soon
April 2006 - WGBH Working to Make Air
Travel More Accessible
July 2006 -
DOT hears criticism of rights plan for deaf flyers
September 2006 - IBM develops mobile system for the
hard of hearing
September 2006 - OnStar by GM enhances TTY capability
December 2006 - Grand
Rapids airport to help hearing impaired
January 2007 -
Foreign-flagged cruise ships will be required to meet
ADA requirements
June 2007 - Facts
About Traveling with Service Animals
July 2007 -
How to Get Communications Access During Air Travel
November 2007 - Captions Coming to
Inflight Entertainment
May 2008 - DOT To Require Accessible
Communication for Air Travelers with Hearing Loss
May 2008 - Jacksonville Airport Provides
Accessible Communication
June 2008 - Airborne Captions on a Handheld
July 2008 -
Washington State Group Sues for Communications Access on
Ferries
October 2008 - Important Information for Air
Travelers
October 2008 -
Access Board Advisory Committee
Presents Report on Vessel Alarm Systems
November 2008 -
Public Venue Access Coming to
Washington State
December 2008 -
Can Air Travel be Made Accessible for People with
Hearing Loss?
February 2009 -
Washington State ferries settle lawsuit, will caption
announcements
June 2009 - Changes to Air Travel Regulations
September 2009 -
Seattle Ferry system unveils captioning plans
November 2009 - DHHCAN Releases New Consumer
Action Guide on Air Travel
December 2009 -
Washington State Ferries seek bids on captioning system
January 2010 -
Jaunted's Guide to Flying for the Hearing-Impaired
February 2010 - Legal Issues with Getting
Captioning in Airplanes and Airports
March 2010 - Airport Making Good on Accessibility
Promise
March 2010 - Guide to the Air Carrier Access
Act
May 2010 -
Continental Airlines to offer Closed Captioning on LiveTV
June 2010 - New DOT Rule Extends Disability
Protections to Passenger Ships and Boats
June 2010 -
NY Subway Information
Booths Looped
October 2010 -
Norwegian Cruise Lines Settles ADA Discrimination Suit
November 2010 - A Dark Night, a Hearing Dog, and a
Day in Court
November 2010 - Ferry System to Install
Message-Display System
December 2010 - TSA Guidelines for Airport Screening
the Hearing Impaired
January 2011 -
Access to the Airlines - Are We There Yet?
February 2011 -
Indian Trails Busses
install hearing loop technology
February 2011 -
Assistive Listening System Designed for Airplanes
March 2011 - Minneapolis-St. Paul International
Airport Introduces Visual Paging Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Customers
December 2011 - Closed Captioning for Live Television
on Continental Airlines
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July 2001
The Japanese newspaper "The Yomiuri Shimbun" recently
reported that Japan Airlines (JAL) has introduced magnetic writing
boards on all domestic and international flights. The purpose of the
slates is to improve communication with passengers with hearing loss.
I haven't seen a picture of the slate, but I'm assuming it's a
beefed-up version of the magnetic slates we boomers played with as kids.
For our younger readers, these are devices that have a plastic film over
a black "tablet". The user writes with a stylus, and the text
shows up almost as if it were written with a pencil. Simply lift up the
plastic film to erase.
When I first read this, I thought that it was a pretty low-tech
solution, but the more I think about it, the better idea I think it is.
The user doesn't have to be computer-literate, it's easy to pass back
and forth, and it's kind of fun to use. I've known a couple of people
who carry them in lieu of pencil and paper, and it works great for them.
It seems like an effective, inexpensive, and convenient solution to a
nagging communications problem.
The bottom line is that it looks like a step in the right direction,
but it appears that these recent actions do not comprise a total removal
of existing restrictions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 2002
The San Francisco Chronicle recently reported that the Deaf
Counseling, Advocacy and Referral Agency (DCARA) and an individual
plaintiff named Colin Piotrowski have filed a civil rights lawsuit in
federal court claiming that the San Francisco International Airport
fails to provide adequate access to hard of hearing people, and that
this failure causes hard of hearing people to face significant problems
and dangers at the airport. DCARA is a social service agency serving
deaf and hard of hearing people in the Bay area. The suit was filed
against the San Francisco Airport Commission, Airport Director John
Martin and the city of San Francisco.
The suit claims that the airport suffers "systemic
failures" that prevent people with hearing loss from obtaining
adequate information regarding flights, emergencies, and pages. It
points out that travelers with hearing loss must rely on the information
provided on the arrival and departure screens, supplemented by whatever
additional information they are able to obtain through written notes and
other ad hoc communication methods.
The plaintiffs are seeking certification as a class action suit, and
desire a court order requiring the airport to address these issues.
I say more power to DCARA and Colin Peotrowski. We've been hearing
people complain about lack of communications access at airports for
years, and there seems to have been no improvement. We'll be watching
this development closely; hopefully, the desired result will be achieved
and the movement will spread throughout the country.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2002
Editor: Have you had a problem with airline travel related to your
hearing loss? Like you couldn't understand what the gate agent was
saying over the public address system? Or you couldn't understand the
safety instructions they gave you on the airplane?
The Department of Transportation has just opened toll-free hotlines
for reporting these kinds of problems. Here's a note from the BH list
with information. Please call them early and often to complain about the
lack of communications access in air travel for people with hearing
loss.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This message received today from Blane Workie in the Office of
General Counsel at the Department of Transportation:
The Department of Transportation's aviation consumer disability
toll-free hotline will become operational at 7 a.m. local time in
Washington, D.C., on August 5, 2002. The toll-free number for our
aviation consumer disability hotline is 1-866-266-1368 (voice) and
1-866-754-4368 (TTY). We ask that you advise members of your respective
organizations about the establishment of the hotline and encourage them
to call the hotline to obtain information and assistance if they should
experience disability-related air service problems.
At this time, we would also like to express our sincere appreciation
to those individuals who tested our Hotline system by calling our
toll-free number with simulated air traveler disability-related issues.
The testing of the hotline system by disability community organizations
has been very helpful and we have used the comments provided by
representatives of the disability community to improve the hotline
system. After several weeks of operations to fine tune the hotline's
operations, we will ask that a press release be issued to announce its
availability to the general public.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Editor: I think I understand disability rights legislation pretty
well. But one thing that's always puzzled me is why airports, train
stations, etc. are not required to caption their announcements. (If
anyone has an answer to this, I'd love to hear it!)
Anyway, it's looking like announcement captioning may finally happen.
Here's a report by Kelby Brick from the NAD's "Eye on
Washington"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
David Nelson, a truly wonderful volunteer and leader in Washington
DC, has been working with the NAD for a number of years to push for
access in transportation - especially airline access. Recently, David
and I attended a conference on this specific issue. Representatives from
many airlines and disability groups attended the conference. The meeting
was productive but very little progress was made regarding access
related to deaf and hard of hearing air travelers. The best thing to
come out of that meeting was that we learned (through a third party)
that the Department of Transportation is seriously considering proposals
to require access such as captioning and text announcements. We learned
that they are in the process of hiring a consultant to do an economic
analysis of the proposals. We view this as wonderful news as we have
been hard at work for almost eight years to push for new rules that will
provide access to deaf and hard of hearing air travelers. We'll
definitely keep you posted on any new updates.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July 2005
Those of you who take cruises (or want to) will be happy to learn
that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to foreign cruise ships in American
waters. Under the ADA's public accommodation and public transportation
sections, ships must not discriminate against people with disabilities.
The case involved three people in wheelchairs who cruised aboard
Norwegian Cruise Line ships in 1998 and 1999. The suit claimed that the
plaintiffs were denied access to facilities such as public restrooms,
restaurants, swimming pools, elevators and cabins with a balcony or a
window, and that this constituted discrimination under the ADA.
The Supreme Court ruling overruled a lower court ruling that the ADA
does not apply to foreign cruise ships.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April
2006
Hearing-impaired
people will be allowed to drive, possibly in two years, under certain
conditions, the National Police Agency said Thursday. People who are
hearing impaired have been asking to be licensed to drive to make it
easier for them to participate in society. About 129,000 people in Japan
are deaf, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2006
As part of a disability settlement, Bob Hope Airport
in Burbank will add monitors and a kiosk to make security, baggage and
other information available for the deaf and hard of hearing. The airport
settlement with the Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness calls for the
terminals to add monitors displaying messages, according to officials. The
airport will also install a video information kiosk to help
hearing-impaired passengers navigate t he facility, arrange for
sign-language interpreters and increase the number of teletype pay phones
to at least nine.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December
2006
By
this time next year, travel out of Gerald R. Ford International Airport
will be a lot less stressful for hard-of-hearing passengers. An upgrade
to the public address system will add technology allowing flight
announcements to be broadcast directly into hearing aids with a special
receiver. The technology is said to be a first for U.S. airports. That's
comforting to Maggie Smedley, whose parents are deaf. She knows
firsthand the pitfalls faced by travelers with hearing problems.
"Many don't dare go to the bathroom or get any food because they
might miss when the flight is going to board," said Smedley,
director of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Service in Grand Rapids. "They
become as dependent as children." Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January
2007
The
federal government proposed new rules this week that would apply the
Americans With Disabilities Act to cruise ships for the first time. The
rules, published in the Federal Register on Jan. 23, ban discriminatory
practices by foreign-flagged cruise ships that dock in the United
States. Guidelines for the design of ships have yet to be hammered out.
Ted Thompson, a vice president at the International Council of Cruise
Lines, said that when they are, the rules will be merged into one
document. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July 2007
I think it's absolutely ridiculous that people
with hearing loss don't have access to announcements when traveling. Some
of this is safety information (like the safety info that the attendant
provides at the beginning of the flight), and some is essential to getting
where you're going. I think the real issue here is that the people with
hearing loss are the ones who pay the penalty for the failure of the
airlines to act responsibly. Is there a way to make the airlines pay that
penalty?
YES, there is. I'd like to see every person with
hearing loss (and interested hearies!) make the airline personnel
responsible for getting the information contained in all announcements to
everyone with hearing loss. All this requires is the following:
- on an airplane, every time there is an
announcement, ring your attendant call button and ask them what the
announcement was
- in the terminal every time there's an
announcement, go to the desk and ask what it was.
If everyone with hearing loss did this, the
airline personnel would pay the price for the airlines' irresponsible
behavior, and they would read the riot act to their management! I bet
after about a week, we'd see captioning boards, loops, etc. spring up in
terminals and on airplanes!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July 2008
For most frequent
ferry riders, public announcements about safety, car alarms and misplaced
wallets are a mundane part of the ferry experience. For riders who are
deaf or hard of hearing, those auditory announcements can be a source of
frustration and anxiety, said Bainbridge attorney John Waldo. Waldo is
representing the nonprofit group Washington Communication Access Project
in a lawsuit aimed at forcing Washington State Ferries to display
announcements in text on ferries and in terminals.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2008
If you have a hearing loss, you know what it's
like to be sitting on the edge of your seat, wondering just what the last
announcement was and what the next one will be. A page for a passenger? A
gate change? A boarding call? One member let us know she was so stressed
at the airport she was reluctant to venture to the restroom for fear of
missing those visual clues that would let her know when her plane was
boarding. Another commented that it made a world of difference when her
hearing husband accompanied her on flights: she could relax knowing her
husband would alert her to every important announcement as it was being
made, that she would not need to depend on overtaxed airline personnel who
may or may not remember to notify her. So, what do the rules say and what
can we do to make air travel less stressful for us all?
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2009
The Washington State Communication Access Project
(Wash-CAP) and the Washington State Ferries have amicably resolved their
lawsuit with an agreement that the ferries will begin to caption their
public-address announcements made on board and at their terminals. The
agreement is embodied in an order that will be signed by a court, giving
it the same effect as if the case had gone to trial, and this was the
decision. Wash-CAP's lawsuit stated that passengers with hearing losses
can't understand those announcements. While some are routine and
relatively trivial, others are specific and extremely important
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 2009
At a recent Seattle meeting of interested
organizations, Washington State Ferries explained how it intends to
convert its public-address announcements made on its vessels and at its
terminals into text form, then to display those announcements to make them
accessible to patrons with hearing loss. The basic system will be modeled
after the system used at San Francisco Airport, where all gate information
and passenger pages are displayed in text on some 80 screens visible
throughout the airport. Here are the notes from that meeting, as compiled
by WSF.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2009
The Washington State Ferries have issued a request
for proposals for a visual paging system that will display in captioned
form the announcements made on board WSF's vessels and at its terminals.
The request -- a legally required step for a state agency to make a
significant purchase -- asks potential vendors to give specifications and
quote prices for what it calls a "voice-to-text visual paging system
modeled after the visual paging system at San Francisco International
Airport." Deadline for vendor responses is January 7 of 2010, and WSF
expects to award a contract on February 1. (Read the full document here).
Numerous announcements are currently made by public-address systems on all
of WSF's vessels and at its terminals, but those announcements are
difficult for hard-of-hearing people to understand, and are totally
inaccessible to deaf passengers. Both state and federal law require
government entities such as the state ferry system to make communications
effective to people with hearing loss. According to the bid documents,
the system "must be capable of converting regular voice messages from a
variety of assigned vessel crew and terminal personnel." Both routine and
specialized announcements (such a information about cars with lights left
on) will be displayed in text form on television-type monitors or on
reader-board devices.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2010
We've geeked out over the airlines in-flight
entertainment offerings and the status of in-flight WiFi enough here on
Jaunted but we've recently realized that these technological advancements
still leave a certain group out of the loop--the hearing impaired. You
may take for granted that you can watch movies (whether you paid $8 for
them on your seatback or if it's playing overhead) but in fact, most
in-flight entertainment offerings don't even offer closed captioning. And
while some Southwest flight attendants get creative with their boarding
announcements, there's no sign language interpreter for the hearing
impaired. This is probably fine when it comes to rapping flight attendants
but what happens when there's an emergency? According to the National
Center for Health Statistics, 37 million adults of all ages in the United
States reported some degree of hearing loss in 2006. This includes a range
of impairments, from those having problems hearing to those who are
completely deaf. So we thought we'd look at how airlines are
accommodating these kinds of travelers. Check out the options below for
hearing-impaired passengers on the major U.S. airlines and learn what your
rights are as a hard-of-hearing flyer.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2010
Earlier this month, Academy award-winning deaf
actress Marlee Matlin tweeted the following: "On Continental and they have
DirecTV. DirecTV has captions on my TV at home but NONE here. Come on!
What will it take? PLS RT" Marlee makes a good point. Why isn't closed
captioning (CC) available on LiveTV's newest generation LTV3 system, which
is being fitted to Continental's Boeing domestic fleet? The answer is
that CC is coming to Continental!
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2010
Norwegian Cruise Line has agreed to pay $100,000
to nine cruisers with disabilities who allegedly were discriminated
against on one of its ships. The U.S. Justice Department, which announced
the settlement on Monday, had sued the line on behalf of the cruisers,
five of whom are deaf and four of whom use wheelchairs. The Justice
Department says in a statement that the five deaf cruisers did not receive
interpreters and other auxiliary aids, or a closed caption TV, while on
voyages around Hawaii on a Norwegian ship, and "thus were unable to enjoy
the activities on board the ship or the shore excursions because they
could not understand what was going on and communicate effectively."
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2011
Department of Transportations' (DOT) forum on the
Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA), "Working Together to Improve Air Travel for
Passengers with Disabilities" January 11, 2011. We joined members of the
disability community, the domestic and foreign airline representatives,
and staff from DOT, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the
Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the US Department of
Justice. In short, the room was filled with people interested in access to
air travel for people with disabilities taking time out of their busy
schedules for the two-day forum.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2011
The high noise environment in airplanes is adverse
to spoken communication regardless of one's hearing ability. Presently an
estimated 10% of the population in the U.S.A. have a significant hearing
loss and can benefit from the use of hearing aids and assistive listening
systems (ALS) in difficult listening environments. With airline traffic
exceeding 40 million passengers per year, addressing the needs of the
growing market of hearing impaired travelers is significant to the airline
industry and hearing health care professionals. Many hard of hearing
travelers have affirmed that on board listening conditions often result in
miscommunications, social isolation and potentially dangerous
circumstances. Comments received in a recent survey also highlight the
fact that hard of hearing travelers are not able to enjoy the same
in-flight movies, entertainment channels and pilot announcements that are
readily available to their fellow passengers.
Full story
