According to the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), over 60% of the 15% of Americans who have some degree of hearing loss work. Hearing loss may necessitate some extra effort, but it should not reduce your productivity or add to your day’s stress.
The majority of annoyances arise from misunderstandings, thus open communication is essential for successful partnerships. Do not be hesitant to ask someone to speak clearly or to look at you as they speak. Small modifications to your work environment might help to keep things operating smoothly in the workplace.
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Employment and Hearing Loss
Hearing-impaired employees may find the workplace to be difficult. Conversations with coworkers and the attention required for communication during the day use a lot of energy, which can impair both mood and productivity. Dismissal from the work is frequently the depressing outcome.
It’s understandable if you want to keep your hearing loss a secret. Some people find it humiliating to inform their coworkers or bosses about it. An untreated and unreported hearing loss causes greater issues for all parties involved over time than prompt action and transparency, even if it appears frightening at first.
It is a well-known truth that it pays for an employer to pay attention. According to a poll done by the magazine, every extra effort made to accommodate a hearing challenged employee is rewarded with a higher effort by the employee for the same compensation.
If you have hearing loss, especially if you recently found it, you may need to give your coworkers and employer some pointers on how to communicate with you effectively. If you’ve just changed jobs, there’s a strong possibility your new coworkers have never heard of hearing loss before. Once you’ve informed someone about your issue, you’ll be able to work together to overcome it.
Communication With Hearing Loss: Difficulties at Work
According to an Italian study, working persons with mild or moderate hearing loss may be negatively affected at work unless they wear hearing aids. A comparison of 73 participants with hearing loss and 96 people with normal hearing was used in the study. In terms of gender, age, and occupation, the two groups were identical in composition.
Hearing loss was associated with more issues in the workplace, both emotionally and socially. This was proved by the hearing impaired group having a higher prevalence of indications of despair, anxiety, sensitivity, and aggression than the normal hearing group.
The outcome was a vicious spiral for many since problems integrating into the social milieu at work frequently led to feelings of isolation and inadequacy. This, in turn, has a negative impact on hearing loss sufferers’ overall health and quality of life.
Workers with mild to severe hearing loss may consider investing in a hearing aid based on these findings. Hearing aids have been demonstrated to provide significant benefits in terms of quality of life in a number of studies. However, an open discussion between individual hearing-impaired workers, coworkers, and management is equally necessary in order for all of them to contribute to the best possible circumstances for a healthy and productive work environment.
Tell Your Coworkers About Your Hearing Loss
Your coworkers may have little or no knowledge of your hearing issue. They must be aware of key information in order to interact successfully with you. Here are some ideas:
- ‘I’m deaf’ should not be used as a sweeping statement, instead, describe your hearing loss in detail. For example, you may remark, “When there’s a lot of background noise, I have problems hearing voices.”
- Inform your coworkers of the best ways to communicate with you. Tell them, for example, that speaking more slowly will assist. Request that they stand a safe distance away from you and that their face be well lighted.
- Request that they raise their voice volume somewhat and offer suitable visual clues.
- Instead of repeating things you don’t understand, ask them to restate them, and jot down important details like dates, times, addresses, phone numbers, people’s names, and monetary amounts.
- If one side of your body has more hearing loss than the other, let others know which side is your ‘good side.’ Explain that determining direction is a challenge for you.
- Tell them about your specialized gadget and whether or not you use hearing aids or a cochlear implant.
- Let your coworkers know whether you have tinnitus or Meniere’s disease and how it affects you. You could, for example, feel dizzy and queasy and need to lie down.
Communication With Hearing Loss: Suggestions
Hearing-impaired workers frequently face a variety of issues in the workplace. Din Hrsel, a magazine for hearing impaired Norwegians, performed a poll on work-life and hearing loss among hearing-impaired persons. Some of their suggestions for employees and employers are included below:
- Make use of a high-quality hearing aid. For hearing-impaired personnel, a well-fitting and well-functioning hearing aid are essential, especially in the workplace.
- Make your hearing loss known – Openness strengthens your relationship with your boss and gets you closer to your coworkers.
- When on the phone or in meetings, if feasible, use assistive listening equipment.
- Explain to your boss how important it is for staff to have adequate acoustics in meeting rooms and common spaces.
- Make connections with coworkers who are familiar with your circumstance. If you don’t understand something, they can explain it to you.
- Inform colleagues about your requirements on a regular basis so that they are constantly aware of how they can assist you, and when you miss a message, don’t be scared to point it out.
- Hearing-impaired personnel may make their days simpler by using overheads, PowerPoint presentations, blackboards, and other visual modes of communication on a regular basis.
- To minimize misunderstandings, important information and directions should be delivered in writing.
Communication With Hearing Loss: Accommodations at Work
There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for accommodations because everyone’s requirements and job experiences are different. However, it’s critical to show why a specific accommodation or alteration boosts your productivity in each case and in any dialogue with human resources and/or your supervisor. Adjustments to your workspace may be requested, and prepare to explain to your manager how you’d like to be as productive as possible, but that your noisy work environment makes it difficult to communicate over the phone.
ALDs (Assistive Listening Devices)/ALS (Assistive Listening System) are devices that help people hear better. Find out what sort of systems will work best for you, as well as pricing estimates and purchasing alternatives. You also have the right to have Hearing Aid Compatible (HAC) phones provided if the phones on your desk or given cell phones are not. A dedicated line and a captioned telephone are required for captioned telephone service, or more particularly, Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service (IP CTS).
Written memos, conversation summaries, and emails will assist you and your supervisor stay on the same page. Show initiative by writing down your comprehension of all assignments and sending a copy to your employer for approval. Keep a record of those tasks, as well as assurance from your employer that you’re on the correct road.
One of the best accommodations is a CART (Communication Access Real-time Translation) writer. Every word uttered is transcribed by a CART writer and shown on a laptop, which can alternatively be projected onto a screen. After then, a transcript can be given. Confidentiality is required under the CART writer’s code of ethics, thus privacy should never be an issue.
About Hearing Loss Workers Compensation Benefits
The Workers Compensation Program was established in 1911 to encourage employers to make the workplace safer by requiring safety programs and the use of safety devices. Since 1911, there have been over 2.5 million workers’ compensation claims filed. Hearing loss workers’ compensation claims now rank #3 in the number of occupational diseases claims filed.
Hearing loss workers’ compensation benefits are largely undiscovered benefits covering hearing health care, which is often uninsured. Many health insurance policies and programs like Medicare do not cover hearing aid purchases but workers’ compensation can. It also pays for the disability of hearing loss just as it does for the loss of eyesight or other injuries.
Aging populations, advances in technology, and greater sensitivity to hearing loss are bringing more attention to financing hearing health care. For the most part, those who qualify for hearing loss workers’ compensation benefits are retired hearing-impaired workers who live on fixed incomes.
Always feel free to ask Johnson Law Offices about the process, the law, or an individual case. The legal, medical, and audio-metric questions that come into play in a hearing loss workers’ compensation claim can be complicated.
The claims require attention to detail mixed with an ability to work well with hearing-impaired retirees and their families, especially spouses, and their hearing health care professionals.