American Sign Language (ASL) is the predominant language used by Deaf people in the United States. It is a visual language with a unique grammar and syntax, which differs from English.

Sign language (American Sign Language)

In July 2018, the CCDHHDB received a two-year grant from the Colorado General Assembly’s Joint Budget Committee :

• Works to bring sign language interpreting services to rural areas 
• Provides outreach to let rural communities know how they can receive free interpreting services
• Available for medical, legal, employment, or other situations — are free for the consumers as well as the providers.

Rural Interpreting Services Project (RISP)

Sign language interpreting services include training interpreters at the initial and advanced level and conducting community outreach.

Pepperdine University

For people that are hard of hearing or deaf, it is important that sounds are able to be understood through other means. Often times, subtitles or a transcript are included for people that are hard of hearing.

Auditory Accessibility

Mead, A. (2021, February 2). Enhancing services for deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind patients in rural America. The Rural Monitor. Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/rural-monitor/enhancing-services-for-deaf/. 

Enhancing Services for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deafblind Patients in Rural America

Subtitles are a written translation of dialogue that is displayed while the audio is playing. This can help make auditory information accessible to those who are hard of hearing or deaf. This can be also useful for people who may be unable to play the sound out loud, unable to distinguish what someone is saying, or may speak a different language than the one spoken in the audio.

Subtitles for People Who Are Hard of Hearing or Deaf

Deaf sensitivity training gives an overview of Deaf culture and effective communication strategies. Participants learn that American Sign Language (ASL) is a distinct language and may be many deaf people’s native language.

Deaf Sensitivity Training

Communication Access Realtime Translation is a live closed cpationing service that prints out what is being said, for those who prefer to read text.


CART Services

Sign language interpreting services

Assistive listening devices (ALDs) are devices that can be used along with your hearing aids to enhance your listening experience and provide extra help in challenging listening situations.

- Enhance hearing and sound quality in noisy or challenging listening environments
- Offer substantial hearing benefits when used with your hearing aids or without.
 

Assistive listening devices

A hearing aid is a small electronic device worn in or behind the ear that can help deal with mechanical hearing problems, such as conductive hearing loss. It functions by amplifying incoming sound waves to make the vibration of the eardrum and the movement of the ossicles more likely to occur.

Hearing Aids

A cochlear implant is a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing.

-  A microphone, which picks up sound from the environment.
-  A speech processor, which selects and arranges sounds picked up by the microphone.
-  A transmitter and receiver/stimulator, which receive signals from the speech processor and convert them into electric impulses.
-  An electrode array, which is a group of electrodes that collects the impulses from the stimulator and sends them to different regions of the auditory nerve.

Cochlear Implants

Captioning is the process of displaying text while a video is being played. Typically, the text will be a transcription of the video's audio, noting who is speaking along with sound effects and important musical cues. This helps to make films, television shows, and other video recordings accessible to those who are hard of hearing or deaf.

Captioning

There are many types of TRS available for people with hearing and speech disabilities that allow for them to communicate by telephone in a way that is equivalent to communication used by hearing people. 

Telecommunications Relay Services

American Sign Language (ASL) is the primary mode of communication for many deaf individuals in the United States. It is a complete visual language, relying entirely on visual signs and gestures without any verbal components.

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