To the Access Board:
I am pleased to have the opportunity to respond to the U. S. Access Board's request for comments to the second draft to the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) Accessibility Guidelines for Passenger Vessels.
There are over 30 million Americans with some degree of hearing loss. The prevalence of hearing loss increases with age with 1 of 3 people over the age of 65 having some degree of hearing loss. This is the population most often seeking to take cruises. Accommodations are seriously lacking to meet the needs of this population. The following should be required:
Captioned movies
In room televisions with captioning
hearing aid compatible telephones
TTY(text telephone)
visual /tactile door alerts
visual/tactile alerts for emergency and for the telephone vibrating alarm clocks assistive listening systems available for tours and for entertainment utilization of the appropriate International Symbols of hearing access
Thank you for the opportunity to provide input.
Ruth R. Green
Executive Director Emerita
League for the Hard of Hearing
50 Broadway
New York, NY 10003