Access Board Information Meeting on Communication Access - Part 3

Editor: There seems to be a growing awareness of the issues faced by people with hearing loss in life-threatening and emergency situations. I think it's a long ways from emerging awareness to the implementation of effective systems, but awareness is certainly a start! Here's a report on Lise Hamlin's recent presentation to the Access Board.

This report is presented courtesy of NVRC. You are welcome to share this information, but please be sure to credit NVRC. (See full credit at the end of this article.)

This is part three of four parts.

Previous    Next

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On July 25, 2006, the U.S. Access Board held a public meeting on Communication Access in Washington, DC.

Communications Access at Drive-Thru Machines, Point of Sale Machines

- Banks, restaurants and other venders who use drive-thru availability pose a communication problem for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. NVRC urges the Access Board to set standards for those machines to provide alternative means to access either automated voice menus or live voice over speaker systems.

- Some possible solutions are:

· Voice to text: voice recognition systems would allow the speaker's voice to be read as text by the user, with installation of a screen available for those users who need it.

· Computers with touch screens: this would eliminate the need to use voice at all. Such computers could show visuals as well as text to provide access not only for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, but people with English as a second language.

· Text to text: the consumer could type in a message for the staff person, who could type back, using either computer technology, or short messaging, or even something as simple as TTY technology.

- NVRC urges the access board to set standards for communication access to point of sales machines and drive-thru machines, such as quick service restaurants.

Acoustical Standards for the Classroom

- In their report, "Acoustics in Educational Settings," the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Workgroup on Classroom Acoustics concludes that, "students of all ages and abilities, and their teachers need appropriate classroom acoustics to communicate effectively in the classroom, and other learning environments...The deleterious effect of poor acoustics on students under age 15 and those with hearing and/or learning problems is well documented." (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2005) Acoustics in educational settings: Technical report. Available at: http://www.asha.org/members/deskref-journals/deskref/default)

- Recognizing the trend of subpar acoustics in educational settings, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) introduced a standard for the acoustical design of schools, S12.60-2002, "Acoustical Performance Criteria, Design Requirements and Guidelines for Schools." (http://www.acoustics.com/ra_education_standard.asp )

- According to Acoustics.Com (http://www.acoustics.com/ra_education_standard.asp), "Many recent studies demonstrate that acoustics is a significant inhibitor to productivity and that the presence of noise is directly related to lower test scores. With the approval of this new standard, designers gain an increased awareness of the importance of acoustics in educational facilities and are given specific guidelines to help ensure the success of the facility."

- Clearly, all children benefit from learning environments with good acoustics, but for children with hearing loss, such environments are critical. According to Carol Flexner (Flexer, Carol Ann. Facilitating Hearing and Listening in Young Children. San Diego: Singular Publishing Group, 1980.):

People with normal hearing typically require an S/N (Signal-to-Noise) ratio of +6 dB for the reception of intelligible speech. Due to the auditory distortion of the hearing loss itself, persons with a hearing problem need an S/N ration of +20 dB (Finitzo-Heiber & Tillman, 1978; Hawkins, 1984). Due to reverberation, noise, and changes in teacher position, the average classroom S/N ratio is only +4 or +5 dB, and it may be 0 dB, which is less than ideal even for children with normal hearing (Berg, 1986b, 1993). (Flexer, p.96)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (c)2006 by Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (NVRC), 3951 Pender Drive, Suite 130, Fairfax, VA 22030; www.nvrc.org Items in this newsletter are provided for information purposes only; NVRC does not endorse products or services. You do not need permission to share this information, but please be sure to credit NVRC.