To: U.S. Access Board
1331 F Street, NW., Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20004-1111
From: Barbara Liss Chertok
[address]
Sarasota, Florida 34231-9154
Member of:
Hearing Loss Association of America
A G Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Date: November 12, 2006
Re: PUBLIC COMMENTS ON THE REVISED DRAFT GUIDELINES FOR PASSENGER VESSELS
In 1992, I sailed on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL) "Song of Norway" passenger vessel. During the cruise, I was invited to meet with the ship's captain and the hotel manager to discuss accessibility for passengers with hearing loss. I was asked to submit a written report with my recommendations. On February 29, 1992, I sent a detailed report to the Executive Vice-President of RCCL. I received a letter of appreciation from him, the Rear Admiral of the U.S. Coast Guard and the President of the International Council of Cruise Lines. The RCCL letter said: "We will definitely take your recommendations under consideration for our new shipbuilding project which we have entitled, for now, "Project Vision."
I am now a recipient of a cochlear implant, a device I received five years later. An updated version of my report follows.
SAFETY AND ACCESSIBILITY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PERSONS WITH HEARING LOSS ONBOARD A PASSENGER VESSEL
I. SAFETY DRILLS
1. transcripts and/or realtime captioning be provided at all safety drills
2. a crew member to review instructions with each hearing loss passenger
II. CABINS
1. a number of cabins be reserved in the center section of the ship for hearing loss passengers
2. a hearing loss logo be placed on the outside of each cabin door indicating the cabin is occupied by a hearing loss passenger
3. each cabin be equipped with a TV with closed captions with one channel set aside for emergency, entertainment and other announcements
4. each cabin be equipped with a TTY, a Volume Control telephone, or a CapTel unit and a flashing light signaler to alert for phone ring
5. each cabin be installed with a strobe light to alert for fire and other emergencies
6. each cabin be equipped with a door-knock device placed on the inside of the door to alert to a door knock
III. PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM
1. all PA system announcements be shown as a clearly visible text message
IV. STAFF AND CREW
1. when a microphone is used, care should be taken not to cover the speaker's mouth
2. speak clearly and slowly, especially if you have an accent
3. keep facial hair trimmed around the mouth
4. maintain eye contact and do not cover mouth with hands when speaking
V. ASSISTIVE LISTENING SYSTEMS
1. FM or IR (infrared) systems be installed in entertainment and lecture halls and be equipped with individual receivers and neckloops
VI. CAPTIONING
1. TVs to provide closed captions
2. movies and videos be open captioned
3. at a future time, live theatre performances to be open captioned
4. realtime captioning be provided when needed
VII. INTERPRETERS
1. oral, cued speech and sign language interpreters be provided as needed
VIII. LIGHTING
1. proper lighting be provided to assist with speechreading (lipreading)
IX. SEATING
1. first row center seats to be reserved for hearing loss passengers
X. CONCLUSION
The captain's welcoming speech included a joke:
Question: Why is a ship referred to as a "she?"
Answer: Because she needs a man to handle her.
Suggestion: No sexist jokes, please. ;-)