Accommodating Persons With Hearing Impairments With Additional Tools

In addition to providing special equipment to accommodate hearing impaired employees, employers may also need to hire sign language interpreters. This accommodation may be particularly appropriate in the following circumstances: - Company meetings; - Conferences; - Training sessions; or - Any other business situation involving a lengthy exchange of information.147 In interpreting the Rehabilitation Act, a number of accommodations have been found to be reasonable in aiding a deaf employee to perform the essential functions of the job. Such accommodations include: - Providing laminated cards containing phrases that the employee may need to use frequently; - Preparing lists of terms and questions frequently encountered by the employee to allow people to point to the topic they want to discuss and thereby make lip reading easier; - Providing elementary training to educate hearing employees about common mistakes in communicating with deaf employees; - Training in basic signs and finger spelling for those hearing employees who frequently come into contact with the deaf employee; and - Purchasing a TDD keyboard for the hearing impaired.