News U Can Use

ADA Audit

The most overlooked requirement is that your facility has an ADA audit of its current accessibility level. This written plan needs to be readily available at any time when someone asks for it. If it isn't, you are in BIG trouble because you are immediately in violation of the ADA. This will more than likely lead to closer scrutiny of your property for noncompliance. Be sure your staff knows where your ADA audit is located so they present it upon request.

This audit is a survey of existing accessibility barriers that you have identified. Decide the solutions will best eliminate barriers at a reasonable cost and are "readily achievable." Then prioritize which barriers need to be removed. Whenever possible, complete your work in compliance with the priorities in the survey. It is critical to demonstrate a "good faith" effort in meeting the goals of accessibility. This includes documentation of everything you have done and how you plan to address future requirements.

Devices for Guests with Hearing Loss

Hopefully you have these devices in a nice little suitcase tucked away safely somewhere on your property. The problem may be that it is so carefully put away that your staff does not know where these devices are or how they work. If this is the case (or if you don't have the devices), you are 13 years out of compliance for not having the TTY's, phone flashers, telephone handset amplifiers, assistive listening systems, telephones compatible with hearing aids, vibrating alarm clocks, visual smoke alarms, and door knock lights. This now places you square in the bulls eye of the target.

Most hotel executives are risk management fanatics. However, when it comes to the bath in the wheelchair-accessible room, the most overlooked safety hazard is the tub seat in the roll-in shower or the bathtub with handrails. .

These rickety seats pose a major liability
because they don't meet ADA standards

The problem seems to be a lack of awareness on what to ask for. You need to have a tub transfer bench. The illustration below shows how sturdy this device is. Your guests with mobility impairments don't want a seat, they need the bench for stability and ease of using the bath or shower. Without it, they risk becoming a personal injury suit for your property.

Bed Frames in the Accessible Room

It may never have occurred to you that the type of bed frame in the wheelchair-accessible room is a safety hazard. For guests using wheelchairs, who may also use a mechanical lift to get in and out of their chair, a bed with an open frame is a requirement. Beds on pedestal or box frames are closed, making it impossible for this lift to slide perpendicular under the bed. The following photo shows the precarious parallel position that occurs for the person operating the lift for the guest.

photo of man balancing lift with foot while trying to get person off the bed

The operator has to balance the lift with his or her foot. If the lift slips, then the guest will be injured, plus perhaps the lift operator, and ADA noncompliance, along with personal injury litigation will result.

So check out the bed frames in your property's wheelchair-accessible room. If they are not on open frames, then change them immediately. Inform your staff so they can provide accurate information when guests ask about the bed frames. It sounds like an odd ball question, but for guests using lifts, their security is a concern.

Customer Service Training

Now if you can't present your ADA audit upon request, cannot locate your devices for guests with hearing loss, have risk management issues in your accessible guest rooms, let's hope your situation isn't made worse by a staff that is clueless about successfully interacting with guests having disabilities. Good service and common sense go a long way in overcoming situations centered on accessibility. But common sense can fly away when your personnel are dealing with a guest that invades their comfort zone, especially when this guest is irate about access issues.

Awareness and sensitivity training doesn't give your staff the tools and understanding to deal with these guests' special and unique requirements. Your staff needs practical skills in disability etiquette and knowledge about disability issues so they know why these guests are concerned and possibly upset. Accessibility isn't a preference for these guests, but a necessity. A lack of understanding about this basic underlying principle of the disability lifestyle will create difficulties that can quickly escalate into major problems.

Poor customer service may be the final straw that causes your property to become a major target for ADA litigation.

TRAINING

Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Customer Service Training

Most companies understand the importance of customer service training as part of their strategy to maintain and increase their business. Without a mechanism for measuring the results, the effectiveness of this training may not be recognized.

Typically the interaction between your customers and your personnel more than likely is subjective and takes place in one-on-one settings, without managers viewing any activity. Because of this dynamic, trying to measure the impact of customer service training is difficult.

There are generic ways you can measure customer service. Here are some suggestions that can be easily customized and implemented at your facility.

Customer Comment Cards and Satisfaction Surveys

Your business may already have a comment-card system in place. These systems favor the personnel having the most customer contact. You may want to consider expanding the focus of these cards to include employees who many not have regular customer contact, as they too have an important impact of your service and company image.

Catch Me At My Best

Either the managers or the customers document situations in which employees exceeded the client's expectations. Forms are easily visible and available. The form provides space for a short description of the good service and the name of the employee. The employee receives a certificate, plus a copy is posted in the employee area, as well as placed into their personnel file.

Give small appreciation gifts to the customers for participating, such as a discount coupon
In addition to the certificate, some companies also provide the employee being recognized with a small reward. This adds to the enthusiasm and is an incentive for other personnel to be caught giving exemplary service.

Covert Operations

Many businesses already have mystery-shopping programs for a variety of reasons. It is easy to expand this program to measure the level of customer service provided by your personnel. Define your service standards and objectives to the shopping company, so they can evaluate them as part of their visit. Follow through by recognizing those employees providing commendable service.

With these programs, your company can ensure their investment of time and money in customer service training results in worthwhile outcomes. Your business will be able to measure the progress and the contributions your training programs have on your productivity and profits.

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WORKPLACE

Preventing Hearing Damage

Hearing damage from headphones is probably more common than from loudspeakers, because many people exploit the acoustic isolation by listening at higher volumes. Moreover, the risk of hearing damage from headphones is higher than with loudspeakers, even at comparable volumes, due to the close coupling of the transducers to the ears.

Most people are exposed to dangerous noise levels on a daily basis, but usually for far less time that it would take for hearing damage to occur. The harmful effects can be cumulative, so long-term exposure to short periods of loud noise can produce hearing loss years later.

Musicians and concert-goers who fail to use hearing protection may be subjecting themselves to acoustic trauma on a regular basis. .....hearing loss happens in the inner ear when high energy sound waves, rippling through ear fluid, overstimulate and kill hair cells.

If loud noise only damages the hair cells beyond their capacity to heal completely, then either hearing at certain frequencies will be diminished and/or the listener will suffer tinnitus, when the damaged cells fire continuously even though there is no real sound. Tinnitus is typically described as a persistent, loud buzz in the head at the frequency of the hearing damage. Diminished hearing can be corrected to a degree with hearing aids. Tinnitus is currently not curable, but there are treatments and devices to minimize its impact on the sufferer.

When listening to headphones at the same effective volume level as loudspeakers, headphones may still transmit louder high frequencies that are more likely to cause hearing damage. Another hearing phenomenon that seems to be more noticeable with headphones is a decreasing sensitivity to sound levels over time, as the ears adapt to loud sounds. The listener perceives a gradual drop in loudness even though the volume control setting hasn't changed. It is all too easy for headphone listeners to turn up the volume to the point where hearing is at risk. Therefore, it is important to avoid listening fatigue by resting the ears in silence after long sessions with headphones and to fight the temptation to turn up the volume.

SYMPTOMS OF HEARING DAMAGE

The following symptoms are serious enough to warrant an appointment with the ear doctor:

Ringing or buzzing in the ears
Difficulty in understanding speech.
Slight muffling of sounds
Difficulty understanding speech in noisy places or places with poor acoustics

Anyone who listens to loud music or is exposed to loud noise on a regular basis should test hearing periodically, because hearing loss can be cumulative, very gradual and virtually symptomless.

c. 2001 Chu Moy. www.headwize.com
Reprinted with permission

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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Updated ADA Technical Assistance CD-ROM

This FREE CD-ROM contains a complete collection of the Department’s ADA materials. It includes the Department’s regulations, architectural design standards, and technical assistance publications. Designed for easy use on laptop computers in the field, or other computers that lack high speed Internet access, the CD-ROM will make searching documents and identifying appropriate ADA information easier and more efficient.

The disk contains important information such as