Video conferencing is a wonderful way for people with hearing loss to communicate. You can see the person’s face so you can lip reading. But there’s more….. all video conferencing offers captions and as far as I know, all the services provide captions at no extra charge.
However, it still requires advocacy. Here’s some thoughts …..
Captions
- Captions are available on all video conferencing platforms at no charge, but you must make sure they’re turned on.
- For example, with Zoom, the captions need to be activated in settings for you to be able to access them on your screen. That means you must notify your host to make sure that the captions are turned on in settings.
- Google meet: Captions are already turned on in settings. You just need to turn them on locally.
Speaking Rules:
- One person must speak at a time. (same as any conversation).
- For group meetings, to eliminate background noise, the host can mute participants. Then unmute them when given permission to speak.
- But if more than one person speaks at a time, the host must be informed.
- Of course, the person listening to the Zoom call must be prepared. Their system (computer, or modular phone) needs to be in good working order that provides clear audio.
Bluetooth
- Then there’s blue tooth. Many hearing aids and cochlear implants have blue tooth functionality enabling them to connect directly to their computer. This connectivity provides an amazingly good hearing experience. Yes, setting up blue tooth is a pain, but it’s worth the trouble.
Captions in Other Devices
- Telephone messages are captioned
- Facetime can be captioned
- Youtube videos are captioned
- Movies are captioned
- What else is captioned?
Captions Benefit Everyone
The best part of captions is that it benefits everyone. Just like ramps not only benefitted the veterans that advocated for them but today it benefits anyone with an injured leg with crutches or wheelchair, mothers with baby carriages, bicycles or people pushing their groceries home. In fact, many people watch videos with just the captions and no videos.
