Your agency has adopted a specific policy
regarding communicating with people who
are deaf or hard of hearing. It is important
to become familiar with this policy.
Requirements
for Effective Communication
The ADA requires that . . .
•
Law enforcement agencies must
provide the communication aids and
services needed to communicate
effectively with people who are deaf or
hard of hearing, except when a
particular aid or service would result in
an undue burden or a fundamental
change in the nature of the law
enforcement services being provided.
•
Agencies must give primary
consideration to providing the aid or
service requested by the person with
the hearing disability.
•
Agencies cannot charge the person for
the communication aids or services
provided.
•
Agencies do not have to provide
personally prescribed devices such as
hearing aids.
• When interpreters are needed, agencies
must provide interpreters who can
interpret effectively, accurately, and
impartially.
•
Only the head of the agency or his or
her designee can make the
determination that a particular aid or
service would cause an undue burden
or a fundamental change in the nature
of the law enforcement services being
provided.
Your agency’s policy explains how to obtain
interpreters or other communication aids
and services when needed.
Officers may find a variety of
communication aids and services useful
in different situations.
•
Speech supplemented by gestures and
visual aids can be used in some cases.
•
A pad and pencil, a word processor, or a
typewriter can be used to exchange
written notes.
•
A teletypewriter (TTY, also known as a
TDD) can be used to exchange written
messages over the telephone.
•
An assistive listening system or device
to amplify sound can be used when
speaking with a person who is hard of
hearing.
•
A sign language interpreter can be used
when speaking with a person who
knows sign language.
•
An oral interpreter can be used when
speaking with a person who has been
trained to speech read (read lips).
Note: Do not assume that speech
rea