In module 2, Communicating with Customers with Disabilities, we covered some strategies for appropriately interacting and communicating with persons with disabilities who use assistive devices. Let’s review some of those key strategies.
Consider the assistive device as an extension of the person’s personal space: don’t touch, lean on or move the device without permission.
Avoid moving the device out of the person’s reach. If it is necessary to move the device, please return it to the person’s reach when requested.
Wait for and follow the person’s instructions.
Don’t move the device out of the person’s reach. If this can’t be avoided, be sure to move the device back within the person’s reach when requested.
In the case of a person in a wheelchair, confirm that the person is ready to move.
Describe what you are going to do before you do it.
Did you know ?
Robert Weitbrecht, an American physicist who was Deaf, collaborated with Andrew Saks, a mechanical engineer, who was also Deaf, to invent the first “telephone for the deaf” or the TTY in 1969.
With support from the Alexander Graham Bell Association and the National Association of the Deaf, these two inventors re-built and distributed discarded teleprinters from Western Union and other companies, making the telephone accessible to thousands of deaf Americans.
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