People who are deaf or hard of hearing rely upon visual cues or signals to alert them of dangers or emergencies in the workplace.
Visual or vibrating alerts and alarms (not solely auditory alarms) are available that let all people in the workplace know when there is a danger (Word of Mouth Technology 2007; WA Deaf Society 2006).
Workplace solutions and adjustments
On the job strategies
To reduce the risk of an accident to a person who is deaf or hard of hearing working around moving vehicles, the following can be considered within the workplace:
- clearly allocate areas for pedestrians and vehicles using barriers and/or painted floor markings
- provide comprehensive training at induction including provision of written notes about boundaries for vehicles vs pedestrians and do a workplace ‘walk through’ to demonstrate and reinforce
- allocate a ‘buddy’ who is responsible for ensuring that the person who is deaf or hard of hearing is aware of vehicles entering an area where they are working
Equipment
A visual and tactile emergency alarm vibrates and is very useful for people with both hearing and vision difficulties in case of emergency. These could possibly be used by the driver of a vehicle to alert a person who is deaf or hard of hearing of their approach.
All vehicles working in an area of confined space i.e. a factory environment, could be mounted with beacon or strobe lighting to provide a visual cue of their presence. Strobe alarm systems flash strobe lights in an emergency situation for people that may not notice or hear the sounded emergency alarms due to hearing impairment or use of personal protective equipment such as ear plugs or muffs.
Emergency lights can be placed leading to emergency exits in the wake of an emergency to assist in guiding individuals who cannot hear audio alarms and alerts.
Cameras can now be mounted on moving vehicles to allow the driver to see all angles and cover blind spots to remove the chance of an accident with another employee.
Auditory and visual alarm sensors can also now be installed on vehicles operating around workplaces that trigger when the vehicle is getting too close to objects i.e. now commonly installed in cars to alert of objects when reversing.
(Word of Mouth Technology 2007; WA Deaf Society 2006; JDPower.com 2007)
References
JDPower.com 2007, Reverse Parking-Assist Systems, J.D. Power & Associates -The McGraw-Hill Companies, California, viewed 3 August 2007, <http://www.jdpower.com/articles/article.aspx?ID=225>.
Word of Mouth Technology 2007, Alerting systems, Word of Mouth Technology, Boronia, viewed 3 August 2007, <http://www.wom.com.au/category.php?c=3+>.
WA Deaf Society Inc. 2006, Providing Accessible Services and Facilities for People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, WA Deaf Society Inc., Perth, viewed 13 July 2007, <http://wadeaf.onlinepublicity.net/media/docs/Providing_accessible_services_brochure2006.pdf>.
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