A recent article in The Washington Post discusses the finer points of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as it applies to people with hearing loss in noisy restaurants. Several people profiled in the article said that, while dining out, they were unable to hear conversation because of excessively loud background noise. They described a range of responses to their requests for a quieter table including the music being turned down or off, being told the music couldn’t be changed as it was “set by corporate overseers,” or simply being ignored and/or treated rudely by wait staff.
According to the article, the ADA stipulates that restaurants must accommodate disabilities, however, there seems to be a grey area when it comes to hearing impaired individuals requesting a quieter environment, and the law has mainly been “silent.”
“Noise as a disability-rights issue is an ‘evolving area of law,’” said Ruth Colker, a law professor at Ohio State University, who specializes in disability law, and is quoted in the Post article. “If a restaurant refuses to accommodate a hearing disability, ‘you do not call the police,’ she said. ‘That’s not going to help. It is a civil problem, and you can file a lawsuit with the assistance of a lawyer, which is not an easy thing to do.’”
Most of the disability lawsuits, according to Colker, involve mobility issues involving parking, doors, and bathrooms. Though disabled people should be able to receive “reasonable modifications,” courts may grant an exception to a change that would “fundamentally alter the nature of the business.”
“I could imagine that a court would say the fundamental nature of a restaurant is serving food,” Colker said in the article. “Is it fundamental to the nature of a restaurant to offer background noise? That is an untested legal question.”
To read the story in its entirety, please click here.
Source: Washington Post
To cover the topic in your article- surely if a person with hearing loss cannot understand a member of staff in this environment this is not only excluding them it is causing a risk in case of emergency?
But why have you not mentioned the another major hearing issue- hyperacusis? People with hyperacusis (as mentioned in the original article you link to) find sound painful and so they are being excluded entirely from these establishments and their services (unless they can cope with the pain that is like being poked through the ear with an ice pick continuously for their entire time there).
If that is not discrimination, I don’t know what is.
Some of us have hyperacusis, where each noise enters our brains and ears as pain. So… imagine a restaurant where you have to enter with bare feet on hot coals. Then you sit down and have someone poke you in the eye every 2 minutes for your entire meal. Is this accessible? Would you be able to enjoy your meal?
Now, suppose that everyone else is wearing shoes. Thy can tolerate the hot coals–they may not like it, but it doesn’t hurt as they have nice thick shoes. They are also wearing helmets, so they are just annoyed by the pokes, but it does not hurt them as much as it hurts your poor naked head. They’d prefer to have nice thick carpets, and they’d prefer to be able to have their conversations without thumping. But they can tolerate it.
Imagine being deaf and you can not hear the dinner conversation. You want to join in with your friends or your business colleagues or your conference participants. But you can’t because the ambient noise is too much. This is a disability, and this is unfair.
So, yes, noise is discrimination. And, ask yourself honestly, wouldn’t YOU rather be in a place that respects your need for quiet conversations, and your enjoyment of your meal?