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Reasonable accommodation concerns for hearing loss

Hearing Loss | Last Active: Aug 31, 2020 | Replies (12)

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@arrowshooter

Absolutely, I think your request is reasonable, but my opinion won't count to your supervisor. First I'd suggest documenting everything in case you need it. You have disclosed your hearing loss to your employer and a Bluetooth connection is a reasonable accommodation and generally easy. I find that a bluetooth connection between my phone and hearing aids works well for me. There are other ways to make that connection too depending on what kind of phone you're using. And, for me, I'd have difficulty giving 100% to both tasks simultaneously. If that's true for you, you should tell them and document that too. Good luck.

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Replies to "Absolutely, I think your request is reasonable, but my opinion won't count to your supervisor. First..."

Thank you for taking the time to read and reply. I have to use the audio from my laptop for the meetings, and it's pretty poor. I did share with him that I'd like some help with prioritizing, and his response was that he can multitask so I should be able to as well. Before I talked to him about it, I had approached the other team in my organization who runs this particular series of meetings to ask if I could please get the cases in writing prior to the meeting. That was a negative. So, my first ask from my supervisor was if he could communicate with the team lead for this other department to request the cases in writing earlier. My supervisor is not a fan of making waves or any sort of perceived confrontation with his equals or superiors, so I do not believe he made any inquiries. Honestly, I think any human would have difficulty doing both things well at the same time, but I certainly would expect someone with normal hearing to be better able than someone with hearing loss. It felt like a gut-punch to hear him say that. I do have a recording of that meeting, as I typically do when I can anticipate important meetings and there will not be any patient information discussed. I also have emails that document that he is aware of my hearing loss and my thought that my difficulty with the meetings is directly related to the way I process sound.