Accessibility Matters

For people with hearing loss, being unable to hear what a teacher, presenter, or coworker is saying is an everyday reality. Simple things such as placing an order at a restaurant, attending training, and even having coffee with a friend pose unique challenges. Hearing loss should not prevent any individual from being able to attend and participate in these necessary and important activities. Making your workplace, schools, and online platforms accessible to those with hearing loss is essential to allow everyone a seat at the table. 

Hearing Loss is Widespread

Hearing loss is a prevalent condition that affects over 48 million Americans. The degree of auditory impairment ranges from deafness, which is the inability to understand speech even with amplification, to varying levels of hearing impairment that diminishes one’s ability to comprehend auditory speech. With auditory impairment affecting all ages for a variety of reasons, including work environment, accidents, and heredity, each person has their own needs and preferences when it comes to accommodations for hearing loss. There is no one perfect solution.

Accessibility Matters Everywhere

To create equal opportunities for all individuals, accessibility protocols and resources must be implemented to foster an inclusive environment. Here are a few reasons why accessibility matters in all situations and environments:

• Fosters language acquisition
• Provides equal access to learning opportunities in school
• Promotes inclusion and engagement at conferences and meetings
• Reduces social isolation and feelings of frustration or depression
• Facilitates a greater understanding of what is going on in current events
• Enables enjoyment of lectures, theater programs, museums and garden tours
• Makes videos, event webcasts, webinars, and social media live-streaming accessible for all followers on digital devices

Equal access to education, access to vital information that impacts one’s life, and opportunities for community connection is a basic right for all. They are essential to an individual’s well-being and quality of life. Public businesses, schools, and agencies have a duty to provide communication access to individuals with hearing loss by complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

The Need For Effective Accommodations 

While lip reading can be a helpful skill, it should not be assumed that all people use it. It does not work in all situations and is greatly affected by the environment. American Sign Language (ASL) is often used to meet ADA requirements, but it may not be the most effective method in all situations, including:  

• For individuals with hearing loss who do not use ASL or whose first language is not ASL
• For people learning English as a second language
• For those with learning disabilities
• Digital or online platforms

Captioning is the preferred reasonable accommodation for those who are hard of hearing or late-deafened.  Captions can remove many barriers. Some of the benefits of captioning include:

• Increased Accessibility: Adding captions to your events and digital content makes them more inclusive for everyone, including those with auditory processing disorders, neurodiversity, or traumatic brain injuries.
• Enhanced understanding: Captions help with comprehension and retention for not only individuals with hearing loss but also those with learning or language barriers. They also help in noisy environments. 
• Improved engagement: Whether you’re posting videos or offering online webinars, including captions can make your content accessible to more people, increasing your audience’s reach. Offer different media forms for the best impact.
• Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance: Captions help businesses and organizations meet accessibility laws. Captioning can also be provided at business meetings, museums, government meetings, and all types of events to comply with federal laws.

Caption Pros Can Help 

Visit Caption Pros to learn more about our award-winning captioners and make your next event accessible to all participants by adding realtime captioning. We will provide you the best-in-class captioning experience for all of our services:

• On-site event captioning: Words projected on a screen alone or open-captioned with video.
• CART Captioning: Words streamed directly to the Internet for instant reading on a mobile device, laptop, or tablet.
• Instant transcription: Instantaneous edited transcripts using a captioner and an editor in realtime. This is great for news conferences.
• Webcasting: Realtime speech-to-text translation for webcasts, webinars, and social media live streams.
• Broadcast captioning: Provides captioning for local and national news programs, conferences, government and city council meetings, and sporting events.

Our mission is to make the world more accessible for everyone. We are passionate about creating environments that not only encourage participation but also embrace and champion inclusivity. Partner with Caption Pros to discover how you can make your part of the world more accessible.