So despite my (obvious, see previous post) love for San Francisco, I’m still smitten with the idea of moving move to New York City. I didn’t get much feedback from the NYC side of the Deaf/HH community in regards to accessibility and deaf-friendliness, so I wrote to the Manhattan Chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America to get the scoop from them.
First as a caveat, HLAA generally caters to late-deafened and hard of hearing adults. As such, there is a preference toward assistive technology — hearing aids, CART, and the like. Although HLAA members span all age groups (I’m 34 and a member), there are plenty of members that are older and perhaps feel that learning any of the sign languages is too difficult or won’t help them communicate with their oral friends and family. The advice from them and their advocacy are then aimed at those that were born (and raised, very likely) oral.
So all that being said, what I found is that the the Manhattan Chapter of HLAA is very involved in advocacy and is making great progress in opening up Manhattan to accessibility. I specifically heard back from Ellen Semel who offered the follow information to me (and granted me permission to share it here at Inaudible Nonsense). So after the jump, edited slightly for continuity and annotated with links, here’s what Ellen wrote:
We have lots of captioned theater here in NYC, we are working on looping public places. Our chapter is presently involved in getting the Muhlenberg public library 2nd floor room looped. Are you familiar with room loops? When a room is looped, you can turn your hearing aids to t-coil (telephone program) and hear quite well. Many churches and synagogues are looped. Our monthly meetings are looped and we have CART, which means we have a professional person (like a court reporter) who types on a machine that shows on a screen the very words spoken by our expert speakers. We have movie theaters that show captioned movies. Taxis should be getting loops installed soon — that is the newest, most exciting venue to be looped. The Manhattan borough president, Scott Stringer, has been very supportive to those with hearing loss. There are many accommodations one can get in the workplace. The League for the Hard of Hearing, here in NYC, has a wonderful technical person who advises us on what we need and helps us get the equipment; there is no charge to meet with him. There are also a few subway stations that have loops. We are working to get more public access. I would say NYC is in the forefront of accessibility.
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- Captioning Sucks!
Now let’s fix it!
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29 May 2008 at 12:10
Good luck wish your decision!
I am about to graduate from college and just took a trip up to NYC to see if I could handle the transition from Columbia, SC to Manhattan.
Not only did I make a bunch of great contacts, but I learned that NYC without a doubt is the place for me. The diversity, unity, and just overall feeling of belongingness I got there was amazing. People were very nice and helpful on this visit, (I went back in 2000 but was younger and did not pay attention to much human to human interaction) in fact, much more so than in Columbia.
I am new to the whole blog thing (someone in advertising I met in NYC told me it would be a good idea for me to start one so I just did) but my blog so far is mostly about my experience in NYC and there are some pictures uploaded as well so maybe check that out if you like!
– C
29 May 2008 at 17:49
I used to live in New York (Park slope, East Village and Washington Heights) for 3.5 years and I loved it — but HLAA is lying about one thing — NYC is not “in the forefront of accessibility”, Washington DC remains to be the best place for Deaf people when it comes to accessibility.
But NYC is simply the greatest city in the world when it comes to entertainment — captioned films? There are theaters in NYC that claimed that it is subtitled/captioned but when you arrive, it is not working or not on at all. It is just a hassle of time for me to chase down the managers who simply dismiss us repeatedly.
As for broadway theaters, don’t believe it. They do provide interpreted/cart performances … once in a LONG while. And when it happens, it often do only ONE night out of many months.
LHH is not the only place that you can check out — you can check New York Society for the Deaf/FEGS for further information on this or even better, check DHISNYC via http://www.dhisnyc.com — I contend to believe that dhisnyc is the most comprehensive deaf-related organization in New York, much better than the LHH whom I contend to regard as biased agency reared towards the people who can speak or hear a little.
I love East Village bars than West Village/Chelsea. Why? People there are not just tolerant of me using sign language — they just accepted me as is.
But someone is correct — diversity in NYC is mind-boggling … take the time to sit on a bench (not the dirty one!) in a subway tunnels and watch people coming in and out. Everyone is simply different … I love NYC for that.
But it is certainly not the best place for Deaf people to live and work. Why? NYC is for-profit corporate town out to make money, they simply do not want to deal with Deaf people … many Deaf people resorted to work fro deaf schools, postal offices, their own businesses, deaf-related agencies/organizations … ever seen a Deaf person as CEO of some corporation in NYC? Nope, you will *never* see one.
R-
29 May 2008 at 17:51
One more thing — as Deaf individual who commuted to work in Manhattan on daily basis, I always wondered what people said on the subway trains to each other.
That is the only time I wished I could hear — until I discovered this fantastic website:
http://Www.overheardinnewyork.com
This site simply attested what I thought of NYC — NYC is simply the greatest city in the world.
R-