Blog topic written by Hannah Mann, staff writer at DeafandHoH.com

Many places offer organized tours: museums, historic districts, haunted cemeteries, to name a few. On many of these tours, the guide’s back is usually turned to the rest of the group. For hearing people, this usually doesn’t pose a problem. For deaf people who rely on lipreading and/or signing, this setup is often problematic. While one option is to request or hire an interpreter, that can be costly and time-consuming, especially for a spur-of-the-moment decision.

In other tours, especially those with famous landmarks or inside museums, the guide may conduct most of his presentations facing the group along select stationary locations. While that setup is more accommodating visually, background noise or poor lighting can still hamper comprehension. People with hearing loss may opt to offset these difficulties in different ways: for example, by positioning themselves at the front of the group, or asking the guide to make sure the group is always near an adequate light source.

Do you enjoy going on tours? How does your hearing loss effect what kind of tours you go on, if at all? Do you ever request accommodations or adjustments, and what kind? Tell us at this Wednesday’s Open Chat Night!