Download Hearing Loss in the Workplace – 2007 and beyond…

Hearing Loss in the Workplace –
2008 and beyond…
Dean Olson
Introduction
 Dean Olson
Workshop objectives
 Learn new skills for adapting to
hearing loss in your workplace
 Identify accommodations needed for
your hearing loss
 Recognize when to “go for it” and
when to practice patience
Traditional Workplace Challenges
Phones
Meetings
Training classes
Interpersonal relationships
Consequences of hearing loss
misinterpreted as performance issues
 Rapid pace of technology changes
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20th Century challenges:
 Phones
 Limited phone accommodations: Only
Amplified Phones
 Limited T-coil compatibility: frequent issue
with office phones
21st Century challenges:
 Phones
Cell phones
Headsets
Speakerphones
Hearing aid compatibility (T-coil) required,
but installers often unfamiliar with what
this means
 VOIP using computer (VOIP=Voice Over
Internet Protocol) uses much narrower
dynamic range of sound frequencies
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21st Century Technology Solutions:
 Cell Phones
Ensure T-coil compatible
Blackberry option
Loop for T-coil
If hearing aid is bluetooth enabled, request
phone with bluetooth
Ask for a Sidekick (or iPhone) for text
messaging instead
Have backup phone number, or messaging
system
21st Century Technology Solutions:
Headsets
Amplification might be enough
Can use inductive coupling device (loop,
silhouettes)
Speakerphones
Sound quality varies greatly
VOIP phones
Can use inductive coupling device (loop,
silhouettes)
21st Century Behavioral Solutions:
 Phones
Limit time on the phone to when your
energy level is higher
Schedule down time after lengthy calls
Negotiate for job tasks that require less
phone use; or ask for IM / email as an
alternative
Insist on the best equipment, e.g.
amplifiers for both the phone, and the
headset accommodation
20th Century challenges:
 Meetings
 Most were face to face – even when
participants flew to a central location
 Pace of business was slower
21st Century challenges:
 Meetings
 Distance Meetings
e.g. using internet sharing,
speakerphones, or podcast technology
 Heavy use of projectors e.g. for
powerpoint presentations
 Darkened rooms
 Conference phones (even for local
participants)
21st Century Technology Solutions:
 Meetings
CART
Remote CART
Depends on size of meeting
Microphone
FM system for speaker phone, PA system
and TV/computer videos during meeting
 Direct Audio Input – CI patch cords or
audio cords / neck loops
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21st Century Behavioral Solutions:
 Meetings
 “Lights on” policy
 Agenda and minutes
 Buddy system e.g. someone to help if you miss
something
 Request face to face meetings, (avoid publishing a
call-in number for the meeting)
 Seating rules (head, side or foot of table best for
lip reading)
 Coaching to allow for best participation - sitting
across from the woman with the long hair in her
face, reminding people not to talk with their hands
in front of their mouths, etc.
20th Century challenges:
 Workplace dynamics
 “Telling the boss” was optional, if a
hearing loss could be hidden
 Misinterpreting behavior / communication
 Inappropriate behavior
21st Century challenges:
 Workplace dynamics
 Misinterpretation of performance issues
 More “at will – employment” i.e. can be
let go for cause with minimal recourse
 Cube farms and “over the wall”
conversations
 Increase in demand for multitasking
 Perceived favoritism if accommodations
are made
 Increased use of electronic alarms, voices,
etc.
21st Century Technology Solutions:
 Wokplace dynamics
 Important alarms need to be visual (e.g.
fire alarms)
 Layout needs to maximize ability to hear
(e.g. fixed layout forcing “bad” ear toward
the door – use alerting device, mirror,
etc.)
 Computer monitors: low EM emission to
avoid interference with T-coil on the
phone – usually a flat screens are good
21st Century Behavioral Solutions:
 Workplace dynamics
 Education, training, coaching on needs of
HoH employee must be constant, once is not
enough
 Let folks know you can’t hear well over
distances or cube walls – so they are aware
to include you in important “impromptu”
business conversations
 Put people at ease with your hearing loss
using humor
 Develop friends/buddies, establish a network
for protection
20th Century challenges:
 Training
Classroom setting
Trainer who wandered around the room
Trainer who sat down in front
Trainer who mumbled, spoke softly, or
whose voice did not carry
 Background noise in classroom
 Teacher faced the board
 Noisy overheads
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21st Century challenges:
 Training
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Computer based training
Podcasts
Webinars
Sound quality limited by computer
Dark rooms with computer projectors
21st Century Technology Solutions:
 Computer based training (CBT)
 Can be problematic – situation-specific
 Most CBT development software provides
for a text or ‘notes’ option which can be
used to display a transcript of the CBT
voice-over
 In-house programs can be more easily
modified than purchased programs
 If headphones are required, use CI cords,
neck loop or some form of headset
21st Century Technology Solutions:
 Podcasts and/or Webinars
 Understand ability to hear voice-over
 Use headset, etc
 Assess computer speakers/sound, and
test before for most effective quality
 Ask if it’s captioned and ask again
 Sound quality limited by computer
 Plug the headphones or loop into the
speakers, and not the computer
headphone jack
21st Century Behavioral Solutions:
 Training
 Advocate for equal access to training
 Learn the right terms (equal access)
 Let your boss know if you are unable to
complete the training due to
inaccessibility
 Coach those who provide the training on
your needs
 Be prepared to ask – over and over again
 Be the advocate at your workplace!
Work relationships
 Bosses / co-workers
 Those who “get it”
 Those who we still need to help
 Co-workers
 Office politics
 Networking
 Social behaviors and coping skills, per
Sam Trychin, PhD: “Coping does not
mean success or mastery; it means
doing the best that you can to deal with
a problem.”
Workplace Ideas
 Do you know what to ask for?
 Does your employer know what to
offer?
 Who is responsible?
Unsuitable jobs for HOH
 High level of multitasking
 Use of multiple portable
communications devices (blackberry
AND a cell phone, or pager and a
laptop)
 The Devil Wears Prada style
 Heavy telephone use
 Safety: police officer, fire fighter, life
guard, ….
Looking for a job
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Phone screening
Computer/Recorded screening exams
When do you reveal your limitations?
How much do you reveal?
Focus on your abilities and not your
disabilities
When hearing loss happens at work….
 Baby Boomers most at risk
 What will you do?
 Will you retire earlier than planned
and be a statistic?
 Will you learn how to ask for what
you need, and be prepared to
educate your employer & coworkers
etc.?
Final Thoughts – from 12 March 2008
NY Times re: NY Governor Patterson
 Mr. Paterson, who has completed the New
York City Marathon, has said that his
“truest disability has been my ability to
overcome my physical disability.”
 “As soon as people see that I can be
independent, then they hold me to the
standard that everyone else is,” he said. As
a result, “I don’t act the way I did when I
was 17, like I can do everything myself,
because I realized the minute I do that, no
one helps me. So I learned to be a little
more pragmatic about life.”