‘Out of sight, out of mind’ has never served those with hearing issues too well. Known as the invisible disability, those with hearing loss are put in the awkward, sometimes difficult, position of having to disclose one’s disability in the workplace. They face the potential of not being believed, having their needs for accessibility minimized, and needing to repeatedly advocate for themselves.

Employees with hearing loss require thoughtful modifications to work environments, including the ability to see faces for visual cues, the addition of captioning for video calls and phone calls, and a clear signal with little to no background noise. But the interesting part of accessibility is that more often than not all people benefit. Lips on curbs, originally designed for those in wheelchairs, are a saving grace for those pushing strollers or pulling a suitcase; captions, originally intended for people with hearing loss, have grown so much in popularity that a recent study showed half of Americans use subtitles, including 70% of Gen Z.

If you were to poll your employees and ask if the microphone quality on video calls, the audio quality of phone calls, or the reverberation and poor room acoustics in conference rooms affected their ability to do their job, what would the results be?

It is time for employers to embrace accessibility as a concept not solely serving their employees with a documented need for accommodations. The best accommodations benefit all employees, particularly those that maximize communication, and therefore productivity, in the workplace. Tuned pairs your employees with doctors of audiology who are skilled in communication strategies and leveraging assistive technology to foster efficient and effective communication.

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