These individuals are now being served by the Texas Department of Assistive Rehabilitative Services. DARS and the Deaf Action Center have proven to be a wealth of information for individuals with hearing difficulties including assistance in obtaining hearing aids and other assistive devices designed to help them both in personal and professional environments. An excellent resource for the hearing impaired is Karen Moulder, Hearing Loss Resource Specialist from the Office for Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Karen may be contacted at 817-546-7330. Also, for your information, many State and Federal programs are available for assistance and equipment for the hearing impaired. Some of these programs are either no cost or low cost. Also, our employees are working with Caption Call, a national company that provides a telephone device with caption calling to assist them with telephone communication.
As an interested and concerned employer, I am learning more about hearing disabilities and impairments and how to work more effectively with employees who have hearing loss. I am beginning to understand there are certain letters they simply cannot hear; therefore, now when I need to communicate with them I attempt to address them face to face. In addition, I am trying to speak more slowly when speaking with them so they can better read my lips. Our company is also utilizing text messages as a more effective way to communicate with employees that have hearing loss. One very important thing to remember is hearing aids amplify the sound but it is the ability of the brain to categorize the meaning of the sound. i.e., consider the difference of the humming of an air conditioning unit or the humming of a car engine.
This function can be further diminished due to cognitive impairment issues as we age. In addition, the difference in voice frequency between individuals plays an important role in hearing effectively.
If you are a hearing impaired employee, I suggest you learn the resources available to you and share with your employer ways that could possibly improve your work area and environment.
To learn more about this subject check out, “When Shouting Doesn’t Help” by Katherine Bouton. It is a very good book and I think it might be a big help to folks, families and businesses dealing with individuals experiencing hearing loss.
Hopefully, it is not too late to protect the hearing you have and the hearing of those around you.