By Lauren McGrath

While employers in the U.S. are legally required to provide accommodations for an employee’s hearing loss under the Americans with Disabilities Act, discrimination against applicants and workers with hearing loss remains a significant barrier.

In January 2020, Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) conducted an anonymous, one-question poll of its email subscribers to assess their perspectives on addressing one’s hearing loss in the workplace.

The multiple-choice question was: When is the best time to tell an employer about your hearing loss?

The results from the first 100 responses were as follows:

• In the job application: 11 percent

• During the job interview: 33 percent

• Upon receipt of a job offer: 14 percent

• On the first day of the job: 3 percent

• Within the first few months of the job: 12 percent

• Never: 5 percent

• Other: 22 percent

All respondents who answered "other" (22 percent) believe that the optimal timing is situational or circumstantial; they indicate that hearing loss should be discussed if and when it interferes with one's job duties or is severe enough to require accommodations.  

“When you know it's presenting a problem and you cannot hear your co-workers,” wrote one respondent who selected “other.”

Another participant said that they’d only disclose the hearing loss if their devices were insufficient for workplace communication. “With my cochlear implants, I did so well that I didn’t need to tell (anyone at work),” they wrote.

The poll results show that 95 percent are open to transparency about one’s hearing loss at work. Only 5 respondents expressed that hearing loss should never be addressed on the job. These numbers are promising for the de-stigmatization of hearing loss in society.

You can read about individuals’ firsthand experiences with hearing loss in the workplace in the current issue of Hearing Health magazine, themed Workplace.