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In the next couple of weeks I want to write a full post about airport travel. I do a lot of it, both for pleasure and for work. I often encounter humiliating and infuriating obstacles -- and occasionally humiliating and infuriating airport personel as well. Rarely, I encounter helpful innovations.
The airport situation is particularly egregious because it disproportionately affects the elderly. The elderly are the most likely to have hearing loss (even if they acquired it early in life), thanks to cumulative years. They're also the most likely people to have free time and perhaps some money put aside to do things they couldn't do when they were still employed or raising children. One of these is travel. And even if your idea of travel is a cruise, you probably still have to take an airplane to get to the ship.
Airports are inhospitable places for anyone, but they are particularly so for those with hearing loss. Wheelchairs abound, but desk attendants still holler directions through megaphones. "Now Boarding Zone 5!" What? Which? Not to mention, again through a megaphone, "The departure gate for this flight has changed. It is now departing from Gate A23!" What? Where is everybody going? Why?
In the meantime I want to pass on an advisory that was sent to me as a member of the Manhattan chapter of HLAA.
"As many of us as possible need to quickly speak up to the Department of Transportation about hearing access in airports. DOT is near the final stages of adopting new rules including those pertaining to “closed-captioning of televisions and audio-visual displays for airports.”
"For just the next 20 days or so, the agency is continuing to accept comments submitted online. DOT needs to be made to understand that visual displays don’t help people with a vision disability, and while helpful to people with hearing loss, induction loops are the best way for most of us to receive announcements of boarding, gate changes and flight cancellations – as well as to be able to converse with agents at airline ticket counters in noisy terminals with terrible acoustics.
"Please take a moment to go to http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=DOT-OST-2011-0182. Scroll down a bit to the blue link to “Comment Now.”
"The DOT’s request for comment asks: Should it require US airports to display on video monitors messages and pages broadcast over the public address systems? We say YES!
"Also: Should the Department establish a performance standard for providing information for passengers with hearing impairments, rather than require airports to use a particular medium (video monitors, erasable boards, etc.)? YES, induction loops! Should the information be provided simultaneously? YES! And should all announcements be provided, or only those deemed essential (e.g., fire and other emergencies). ALL!
"Please state your case in your own words and as succinctly as possible. If possible, cite examples of missed flights or the trauma at airports caused by lack of hearing access. You can also mention that concourses and gate areas at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, MI, have induction loops, as do airports across Europe.
"Try to speak up so that together we can make a difference!!!"
