Assisting the Hearing Impaired With Real Estate

Great tools in helping the hearing impaired, I've used my iPad as a on the fly translator communicating with prospective foreign clients.

Where there is a will there is a way.

 Good evening Paula. Signing is definitely a language all its own. There's a girl in our church who does a fabulous job. And you are right, everybody needs to be heard – even the hard of hearing.

Great that you shared this topic, my friend Randy Kirsch would definitely be interested in your post and this is an important issue for him.

Thank you for commenting on my post.

What a great way to ask your clients in advance.  I'm not really a texter, so I'd have a little trouble.  I'm currently working with a buyer that was born with no legs.  

Hi Paula, I am sure this will be a deal you will never forget and I wish you much success and the happiness you will bring to this couple will be long remembered.

 I love this post - what better way to sharpen our own listening skills than to have to rethink what listening means to those with different abilities. 

Thanks to Joe for bringing your post to my attention.  I have hearing difficulties and am very much involved in the Deaf and hearing impaired world.  Most hearing people do not know a lot about people with hearing loss or how to deal with them.  You seem like a very kind and understanding person, so that you will have sufficient patience to deal with this couple.  Meetings with people who have a hearing loss take much more time than might otherwise be the case. I attended a mortgage closing a number of years ago with a deaf couple, and the closing lasted 3 hours, as opposed to the normal hour or less, so you need to be prepared to spend more time with this couple.  As for legalities, you are subject to the ADA, Title III, and there may be a similar state law that you are subject to as far as providing accommodations to this couple.  You may be required to provide a sign interpreter if they request one.  There are a number of apps for smart phones that can help you and there is a relay telephone service in Texas that you can use if need be.  As for smart phone apps, there are apps that will caption telephone conversations.  There are apps that will caption face-to-face conversations.  There are apps that will translate spoken word to sign language and sign language to spoken word.  There are video relay phone service that might be of help. You can get most of these various apps in one form or another for free.  They may prove to be very helpgul.  Without knowing the preferred meansd of communication of this couple and not knowing their history, there are a number of assistive devices that will help you with your communications with this couple.  If you need some guidance feel free to contact me privately and I will gladly help you figure out what would be most helpful.  As I mentioned patience is the key, not to mention a virtue.  Good luck and please feel free to contact me if you need some help in finding various devices and apps to make communication easier.

There is a device available that has a screens and keyboards that face opposite directions to enable chatting by keyboard with hearing impaired clients. I read about it in INC magazine.

Paula

Going above and beyond for your customers is a great feeling.

Good luck and success.

Lou Ludwig

Paula, You have the tools and resources with technology to communicate. Your heart and passion for what you do will do the rest.