Key Healthcare Resources for People with Hearing Loss
Key resources for people with hearing loss in healthcare settings.
Last updated 13 Nov 2025
General Resources
- HLAA (Hearing Loss Association of America)
- Toolkit (patients and providers), Guide for Effective Communication in Health Care (34 pages, pdf)
- Program, Communication Access in Health Care (webpage)
- Articles
- McCaffrey, E. and C. McCaffrey (Spring 2025). My Journey from Caregiver to Patient to Advocate Hearing Life Magazine (2 pages, pdf)
- Morris, M. et. al. (Fall 2022). Why is it So Hard to Get the Health Care Accommodations that I Need? Hearing Life Magazine (2 pages, pdf)
- Webb, A. (Spring 2022). Effective Communication in Medical Settings: Your Rights Under the Law. Hearing Life Magazine (2 pages, pdf)
- Quarterly articles, patient stories (webpage, each article is 2 pages)
- Articles
- Thomas, Andrew (Feb 21, 2025) Inclusive environments for patients with hearing loss,
- Jawadi, Z., McInturff, S., & Chern, A. (May 28, 2024). Achieving telehealth equity for people with hearing loss. STAT.
- Shirley, T. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) White paper on captions. (1 page)
- Short Videos
- Runnion, E. et. al. (2025). Effective Communication For Hospital Patients With Hearing Loss (5:25 minutes) by Students of Dr. Elizabeth Runnion at Nazareth University & HLAA Rochester NY Chapter Healthcare Taskforce
- Pocker, R. (2024). Enhancing Healthcare: A Guide for Interacting with Individuals with Hearing Loss, individual contributor, (4 minutes)
- Other Resources
- ACCESS is a framework of six core principles. Better Health Starts with Effective Communication. People with communication disabilities often find it hard to get the information and communication supports they need to fully access health services and programs. This can lead to less than ideal outcomes for everyone involved. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)
- Comorbidities correlations article. Beck, D. et al. (Feb 18, 2025) Untreated Hearing Loss, Hearing Aids, and Cognition: Correlational Outcomes 2025, HearingTracker.
- Medicare (November 2023). Improving Access to Care for People with Disabilities with a handout Improving Communication Access for Individuals Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (20 pages, pdf)
- ADA Business Brief (August 11, 2005). Communicating with People Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing in Hospital Settings (webpage)
- Facility Guidelines. Optimizing acoustic environments at healthcare facilities, Quiet Communities (webpage)
- Letter to healthcare providers. National Association of the Deaf (NAD) (updated 8/22/17) seeks to ensure that all healthcare providers, including doctor’s offices and hospitals, understand their legal obligations with respect to serving deaf and hard of hearing patients and companions. Many references to “Auxiliary aids and services” which includes assistive listening systems. Advocacy letter (13 pages, pdf)
Legal Resources
- Webinars
- Pacific ADA Center (8/27/25). Creating Inclusive Medical Environments. (1 hour, 28 minutes). All recordings of the national ADA healthcare webinars
- ADA Webinar (4/16/25). Your Rights As A Person with A Disability Under the ADA in Health Care (1 hour)
- ADA Webinar (8/22/24). ADA’s Effective Communication requirements in healthcare settings (webpage). Includes link to slides (pdf). Steve Gordon.
- ADA Webinar (8/22/24). Healthcare and the ADA Webinar: Personal Experiences with Healthcare Barriers & the ADA video archive (webpage)
- Webinar (5/3/23). Sweet. Kara, and Steve Gordon. “Episode 117: ADA and Effective Communication in Health Care Settings with the Department of Justice – ADALive!” (webpage). PowerPoint slides (pdf)
- ADA Healthcare Webinar Series. 16 recorded webinars (webpage). The series topics cover physical accessibility, effective communication, and reasonable modification of policy issues under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). (webpage)
- Federal
- Fact Sheet. Telehealth and Federal Disability Laws (October 11, 2023) Pacific ADA Center.
- Final HHS Ruling (4/26/24). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) advancing protections against discrimination in health care. New Rule to Strengthen Nondiscrimination Protections and Advance Civil Rights in Health Care (webpage)
- HHS final ruling, Section 504 (this website)
- Section 1557. Section 1557 Final Rule: FAQ (webpage) Section 1557 is the non-discrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The final rule requires effective communication, including through the provision of appropriate auxiliary aids and services.
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (5/6/2024). Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities, Auxiliary aids and services.
- DOJ
- (4/14/23) U.S. Attorney’s Office Reminds Healthcare Providers of ADA’s Effective Communication Requirements (webpage)
- (4/13/23) Dear Colleagues Letter (3 pages, pdf)
- (updated 2014). Justice Department Announces Americans with Disabilities Act Barrier-free Health Care Initiative by US Attorney’s Offices Nationwide (webpage)
- ADA.gov, telehealth topic
- ADA settlements
- ADA settlements, including medical (this website)