Tips for Traveling with Hearing Loss

Traveling with hearing loss can be a hectic and challenging activity. Regardless of the mode of transport you may be using, you can find yourself exposed to boisterous environments. As someone living with any degree of hearing loss, you will have to follow some safety tips so you can enjoy traveling and discovering new places.

Do People Consider Hearing Loss a Disability?

Hearing loss often goes neglected because it is a hidden disability. If you experience profound hearing loss or deafness in the US, you qualify for Social Security disability benefits. Like most disabilities, profound hearing loss or deafness has rendered many people unable to work and harmed the employment rate for people of working age with hearing loss. On average, people with deafness and hearing loss get paid less than the public.

Are There Laws or Regulations That Accommodate the Needs of Deaf Travelers?

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), people who are deaf or experience hearing loss are entitled to equal services law enforcement provides to anyone else. They should not be factored out from services, be denied services or be treated differently than other people. Multiple laws protect people with hearing loss across all sectors: education, public transport and workplace. Despite the accommodations these laws provide, people with hearing loss will have to adopt practices that will help make traveling with their conditions more convenient.

Visit Your Audiologist Before Traveling

Your audiologist can provide you with enough tips on the things to consider before traveling. They can help you scrutinize to be better equipped, especially if you have to travel to another country. Before you go out on vacation or out of town, you may need a translation tune-up for your hearing aid or even troubleshoot the device. It will be helpful to visit your audiologist before traveling to determine and make the necessary adjustments to suit the environment of your new destination so you can hear with a hearing aid device effectively.

Preparations in Advance

In most places, where people travel by bus a lot, you will be sure to find busy drivers with little awareness of deafness or hearing loss. Be sure to prepare well before traveling check for travel fares and make sure to have enough cash for your journey. Research about and familiarize yourself with the names of places and routes of your destination before you go. You can also get maps showing the major routes and names of places at your destination to help communicate your destination quickly. Finally, call in to ask about accommodations for people with hearing loss before booking hotels or motels in your destination if you have to travel with hearing loss.

Travel with Hearing Protection

This is a very proactive attempt to manage any degree of hearing loss when you travel. Travelling can get loud and noisy, like when you’re using chaotic and busy streets in the cities, experiencing loud honking noise in traffic or even the noisy devices like bells and whistles on trains. It will be suitable for you to make preparations to protect yourself from exposure to excessive noise. Do not hesitate to take off your hearing aids and wear hearing protection or earplugs if you have to.

Pack Extra Hearing Aid Accessories

All hearing devices won’t work without batteries or a sufficient supply of power. You may find yourself indisposed, needing extra batteries in unfamiliar locations with no help. Packing extra batteries can come in handy during battery replacement in cases where you may have misplaced your battery or even need battery replacement. Also, travel with extra chargers and make sure all of them are working well for the sake of convenience.

Special Assistance

Airports, train stations and bus stations are busy and can be stressful for many people with disabilities like hearing loss, especially if you are unsure how to go about things. However, some airports provide hidden disability strands or strings for people traveling with hidden disabilities or health issues. These hidden disability strands or strings are easily noticeable by airport staff when worn and can help you receive special assistance from airport staff. You can also book an assistance staff before flights to make things easier.

Ask for Help

It is easy to get lost in a busy airport or train station with little visually accessible information. So be sure to ask for help from the closest staff members. Also, do not hesitate to make your condition known to them to direct you where to go. Staff members will make information readily accessible to you. And if you still struggle with accessing information, they can help you directly with what you need.

To summarize, you can still enjoy traveling just like everybody else if you adopt these helpful tips for people traveling with hearing loss. The laws already protect people with hearing loss. All you need to do is make necessary contributions to protect yourself and keep your hearing health safe.

You can learn more about Sommerville Audiology & Hearing Aid Center today at (586)-298-3788.