Dear Sir:
I recently took a cruise and was sadly surprised that there were no accommodations made for the hearing-impaired.
Asked the cruise director about this and he said he didn't know of anything they did to help.
I attended art auctions and saw pretty pictures but had no idea what was going on and couldn't have purchased one if I had wanted to.
Attended chef's cooking class and likewise got nothing out of it. No closed captioning anywhere. That would have been so appreciated. Ditto for photography class and any other class offered. Anything in writing, so I could read it instead? Nothing. That would have helped too. I wish anyone who does not realize what a huge problem being hard of hearing/deaf is, would wear ear plugs for a day and not remove them when it got too hard to figure out what was going on but live that way, the way we do. I do the best I can and try all the time but you cannot make a body part work--legs if you are paralysed, eyes if you are blind, ears if you are deaf. How about a flashing light in the room if there is an emergency? Set aside a few rooms to be used by the deaf or hard of hearing. If no one on board, you are free to use them for someone else.
But if people know there is such a provision, more would likely take advantage of it.
We say thank you for whatever you are willing to do. Comedy routine that we cannot hear? Please, print out the jokes so we can laugh too. And give the copies to those who have identified themselves as deaf or hard-of-hearing. Same goes for various classes. We welcome your aid.
Sincerely,
Karen Jedele