How to Have Effective Communication with Hearing Impaired During Virtual Meetings

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How to Have Effective Communication with Hearing
Impaired During Virtual Meetings
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• In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual
  meetings have become a critical tool for
  employees around the world to communicate with
  their team members while working from home.
• Also, due to this uncertain situation, employees
  with hearing loss will have to experience new
  challenges of communication as most of them
  understand speech by reading lips and others use
  contextual clues reserved for in-person contact
  or rely on the support network of their friends.

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• But with this uncalled situation, everything has
  just become a mess for the hearing impaired and
  working without contact becomes a new thing for
  them.
• In fact, it becomes even more problematic in case
  of frozen screen and crashes in video
  conferencing which necessitate the audio-mode. In
  such situations, hearing impaired people have to
  continuously adjust their hearing aid device to
  hear things clearer from the other end.

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• So, what can be done to help build an inclusive
  environment for the hearing impaired?

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• First of all, its important to ask them about
  their hearing aid device ask whether it is
  Bluetooth enabled. If the hearing device can be
  connected to laptops or cell phones via
  Bluetooth, hearing colleagues while communicating
  wont be an issue. But in case, your employee
  uses a traditional hearing aid device, its your
  responsibility to fine-tune the video conference
  settings as per their convenience.

Besides, these ways can be followed to ensure an
effective video meeting.
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Invest in Assistive and Accessible Technologies

• By implementing varied helpful features in
  assistive technologies, you can make the
  communication easier for everyone involved. These
  features include live captioning or subtitles and
  screen readers during web conferencing and video
  calls.

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Workarounds to get caption for Video Calls

• In case you dont have access to live captions,
  there are workarounds. You can use a
  speech-to-text app on a second device like Google
  Live, Transcribe etc.

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Offer Assistance and Be Empathetic

• It would be helpful to understanding what your
  hard of hearing employees need in order to help
  them do their best. For example, it would be
  difficult for a hearing-impaired individual to
  understand others during video conferencing,
  especially when the network is poor, or team
  members speech collides. Be sure to ask them how
  they prefer to communicate, through online text
  chat or text message or email.

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• Also, the hard of hearing needs to speak up and
  be honest about their needs to others. This is
  because its important to let everyone know about
  the challenges one experiences during video
  conferencing, so that others can provide helpful
  hints when possible to make the communication
  process more seamless.

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Encourage Everyones Participation

• Call on anyone who hasnt participated in a while
  to make sure their needs are heard, and they
  dont feel left out in a new working set up.

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Provide Written Follow up

• When a meeting ends, be sure to send everyone a
  follow up with a written document of the key
  points discussed in the meeting.

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• With so many people with hearing loss working in
  the workforce, it is critical to have everyones
  participation in building an inclusive
  environment for those with hearing challenges,
  especially in this climate of remote work.

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• Besides, keep these tips in mind when using video
  calling apps so those with hearing loss dont
  feel left out.

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• Keep the camera steady and your face closer to
  the camera.
• Avoid a too dark or too bright background. Shadow
  can make lip reading difficult.
• Sit somewhere quiet with the fan off.
• Fast bandwidth and strong video quality are
  essential for having a seamless experience.
• Only one person should speak at a time.
• Mute the screen when you are not talking and
  share the same with other team members also.
• Utilise the text feature for questions.

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• These are a few ways an organisation can help
  their hearing-impaired employees. Also, while you
  are doing your bit to make the communication
  hassle-free for the hard of hearing, be sure to
  ask them to invest in quality hearing aids that
  offer Bluetooth connectivity, to be able to
  connect the hearing device with other smart
  devices.

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• Fortunately, some Adelaide hearing clinics are
  still working during these difficult times to
  provide the best hearing aids to the people in
  need.
• Get in touch with them to buy hearing aids of any
  reputed brand.

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Contact Us

• Hearing Aid Specialists SA
• Address 6 Grenfell Street Kent Town ,
  S.A. , 5067
• Phone [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• Email ID reception_at_hassa.com.au
• Website URL http//www.hassa.com.au/