Better late than never, you could say: the municipality of Amsterdam has recently adapted the public information desks for services to the hearing impaired. Andrea Berkelder, employed at PlanPlan, an agency that deals with advice and solutions for accessibility for the hearing impaired of workplaces and buildings, explains.

The UN Convention on Inclusion obliges municipalities to draw up a plan to ensure an inclusive organisation. This treaty entered into force in 2016. In 2018, about half of the municipalities were 'preparing' for adjustments, now that has dropped to 20 percent. At 40 percent of the municipalities, a concrete action plan is currently being developed or such a plan has just been approved. And 20 percent are currently implementing a plan of action, according to one periodic survey by VNG and Movisie.

Ambient noise at counters

Andrea Berkelder – PlanPlan

So things are moving forward, but still: isn't 2020 a bit late for realizing adjustments for the hearing impaired? Andrew Berkelder from PlanPlan explains: “It's sad that it's only happening now, but it's the reality. In many cases, hearing-impaired people were unable to do business independently with the municipality. People who are hard of hearing often have their own aids, such as hearing aids, but these are intended for amplifying sound at a short distance, up to approximately two metres. At counters it doesn't help that there is also the necessary environmental noise.”

Amsterdam came to PlanPlan through a project around the improving services for the hearing impaired near the municipality of Ede, where a nursing home established specifically for the deaf. Reason enough for the municipality of Amsterdam to also improve services to the hearing impaired through a project aimed at inclusiveness. The project started this summer and was completed at the beginning of October.

Berkelder about the adjustments made: “The facilities ensure that the voice of the counter employee can be offered directly to the hearing aid of the counter visitor via a microphone and an amplifier. This can be done via a telecoil loop, which transfers the sound to the hearing aid via a magnetic field, or via the streamer that can be supplied with modern hearing aids. Or the hearing impaired can use headphones that are then available at that counter. These solutions ensure that the balance between what you want to hear and the ambient sounds is better.”

190.000 hearing impaired people

“There are eight city counters in Amsterdam and one counter in each branch is equipped with these tools. People who make an appointment online for a visit to the counter can indicate that they want to use the special counter. All-round services can therefore be offered there. There are about 190.000 hearing-impaired citizens in Amsterdam, not large numbers come to the counters every day. However, the facilities are also very useful for people who, for example, have difficulty focusing on a conversation because they are easily distracted by environmental noise.”

Voice recognition?

Other adjustments are also conceivable when it comes to customer contact, says Berkelder. “The acoustics in the room where the counters are located can often be improved. You can also offer support to the hearing impaired in other places within the municipality, such as the public gallery in the council chamber.” In addition, alternative forms of support are conceivable, such as conversion from speech to text. However, because speech recognition does not work well enough in a situation with a lot of ambient noise, that is not yet an option. The City of Amsterdam has opted for a speech-to-text conversion via KPN tele-interpreterBerkelder says. “The counter calls Teletolk with a mobile phone. The counter visitor and counter employee communicate directly with each other, and the text or image mediation is converted by the interpreter or typist into spoken Dutch, into text or into gestures.”

According to Berkelder, good attention has been paid to internal information within the group of employees involved in public services. How do you deal with the hearing impaired? “How do you deal with ad hoc questions at the public desk? Representatives of Hard of hearing Amsterdam en Deaf Amsterdam have provided information. They also recorded videos with tips, including about the technology used at the counters. As a result, the employees were well prepared for the new facilities.” (zip tone)

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