What aids or services does the provider have to offer?
If you are deaf or hard of hearing, your medical provider must communicate with you as effectively as they communicate with other patients. This means you are entitled to face-to-face communication and written correspondence, just like any other patient. You are also entitled to use telephones, fax, e-mail, electronic systems and the Internet if necessary because of your disability. If you need aids and services to communicate effectively, the medical provider must give them to you, including: qualified interpreters, transcription services, TDD, videotext displays, and captioning, assistive listening devices, like phone amplifiers or phones that work with hearing aids, note takers, and written materials. Depending on the length and complexity of the communication, a hospital would have to provide a sign language interpreter or real time transcription to communicate with patients that have hearing disabilities. (Real time transcription is when speech is displayed on a screen.) For more
