Legal Rights of Individuals with Hearing Loss - Part Two

By Sam Diehl, J.D.

Editor: How much do you know about your legal rights? Probably not as much as you would like to. Here's a great article outlining those rights in various situations. It originally appeared in the Better Hearing Institute's newsletter and is reprinted with their kind permission.

This is part two of two parts.

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Here's part one

Examples of Reasonable Accommodations

Reasonable accommodations may include everything from simple paper notepads to employer-paid sign language interpreters or stenographers. Employers, however, do not have to provide "personal use" items, such as eyeglasses, hearing aids, or similar devices. Examples of accommodations that may be reasonable for individuals with hearing loss include:
* Substituting computer technologies such as email, instant messaging, or chat or voice recognition software for audible communication;
* Providing assistive listening devices that enable an individual to focus directly on the sound source, reducing distractions from background noise;
* Providing sign language interpreters or stenographers;
* Training coworkers in basic sign language;
* Providing phone amplification technology, headsets, or TTY; and
* Considering environmental factors in meetings or other communications such as background noise, seating and positioning.

ADA Enforcement

Enforcement of the ADA is carried out by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or state and local agencies that work with the EEOC. Complaints under the ADA generally must be filed within 180 days of the discrimination or within 300 days if filing with state or local agencies. Some state laws have different time limits and procedural requirements. Individuals may file their own lawsuit in federal court only after they receive a "right-to-sue" letter from a designated government agency.

Rights in Other Areas.

Public Services, Public Accommodations and Transportation

The ADA also has important protections relating to state and local government, public accommodations and transportation. The law requires state and local governments to give people with disabilities equal access to programs, services, and activities. This encompasses such areas as public education, transportation, recreation, health care, social services, courts, voting, and town meetings.

The ADA also prohibits exclusion, segregation, and unequal treatment by "public accommodations" and transportation providers, such as buses, trains, restaurants, retail stores, hotels, movie theaters, private schools, doctors' offices, day care centers, recreation facilities, and other places open to the public. Reports of violations can be filed with the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division and related state agencies. As with employment, state and local laws may differ from the ADA about public accommodations and transportation. Private schools, recreational organizations, daycare centers, museums and institutions are public accommodations covered by the ADA and, as such, must provide auxiliary aids and services when necessary to provide equal access to people with disabilities. The costs for such aids may not be imposed upon the individual with disabilities.

Education

Public schools, colleges, and universities that receive federal assistance (which includes virtually all such institutions) are required to provide interpreters or other auxiliary aids to people with disabilities when necessary. The ADA also requires access for people with disabilities in all state and local government programs, including public schools, colleges, and universities, regardless of whether or not the programs get federal assistance.

In addition, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires public school systems to provide a "free, appropriate public education" to children who need specialized services because of a disability. It establishes a procedure for developing an individual education program (IEP) and identifying needed support services for individual children.

Communication

The ADA requires telephone and television access for people with hearing and speech disabilities. It requires telephone companies to establish interstate and intrastate telecommunications relay services (TRS) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The law also requires closed captioning of federally funded public service announcements. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) enforces these provisions and also works with broadcast providers to encourage additional captioning.

Another federal law, the Telecommunications Act, requires manufacturers of telecommunications equipment and providers of telecommunications services to ensure that such equipment and services are accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities. This law helps ensure that people with disabilities have access to telecommunications devices, including telephones, cell phones, pagers, call-waiting, and operator services. All electronic and information technology developed, maintained, procured, or used by the federal government must be accessible to people with disabilities, including both federal employees and members of the public.

Other Areas

Other areas are covered by disability laws. For example, the Fair Housing Act and similar state and local laws prohibit landlords, real estate sellers, management companies and homeowners' associations from discrimination based on disability. The Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act of 1984 requires polling places across the United States to be physically accessible to people with disabilities for federal elections.

It is important that you familiarize yourself with these laws and assert your rights when necessary. There is no reason that your hearing loss should be counted against you or hold you back from life's opportunities. Fortunately, the law is usually on your side in this effort.

OTHER RESOURCES

EEOC, Fact Sheet: Questions and Answers about Deafness and Hearing Impairments in the Workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act, available at: http://www.betterhearing.org/pdfs/qaEEOC.pdf

EEOC, "Disability Discrimination" Web Page and linked documents, available at: http://www.eeoc.gov/types/ada.html

National Association of the Deaf, Legal Rights, available at: http://www.nad.org/legalrights

U.S. Department of Justice, A Guide to Disability Rights Laws, available at: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/cguide.htm

Job Accommodation Network, Work-Site Accommodation Ideas for Individuals Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, available at: http://www.jan.wvu.edu/media/Hearing.html

Reasonable accommodation is clarified at the following site: http://www.gtlaw.com/pub/alerts/1999/eeoc99.htm