Friday, December 28, 2012

My solution for the deaf as an easier way to check in at the Airport

First thing I would love to see as soon I step into an airport is a large overhead picture of something welcoming written in sign language. This would make me feel like the airports are trying to make deaf people feel more welcomed. Nowadays I feel like an alien whenever I go to an airport. Because when I can't understand what they are saying, and I try to tell them I'm deaf, they look lost and don't seem to know what to do. And I am so tired of trying to explain to the people who work in the airports how to communicate with me, when they don't show any interest or any effort in trying to speak more clearly for me. They need to show some more motivation when they encounter deaf customers like me. Every time I have told them over Christmas all around the airport I was deaf, they made it look like I was a big burden and they acted like they didn't want to deal with me because they had no clue what to do. I'm really tired of running into people like that. At the check in counter, there should be flyers to choose from that describe all the services being provided for the deaf in the airport. They should install monitors at the service counter, so that the lady who works there can type in all directions for the deaf when they check in their suitcases. The words will show up on the monitor, so that we can read and understand what to do with our luggage. All questions being asked and all directions are being typed. There will be a keyboard for the deaf passengers to be able to type back their questions and answers with numbers as choices attached to sentences. There will be easy selections, with numbers 1 to 10. Each number has a sentence with a question or direction, so the lady can type these in fast: such as, 1. May I see your ticket? 2. Do you have your passport? 3. I need to see your I.D. or some sort of identification. 4. Where are you flying to? 5. How many suitcases do you have? 6. You need to go to this gate 7. Your flight is boarding at this time 8. It's time for you to put your suitcases through. 9. You need to make a payment of this amount. 10. Have a nice flight! This would be perfect for me, because then I don't have to deal with not being able to understand what is being said. I can read everything she is saying on the monitor in front of me. The deaf people can push a button up front saying they are deaf and they want the monitor to display all directions for them. I would love it if they could have something like this.

2 comments:

  1. Those are wonderful ideas. You never think about how poorly structure airports are because we don't deal with the same challenges when traveling.

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  2. Thank you. :) I really appreciate hearing your feedback on this. I have sent some of these ideas to the airport as suggestions to see if they can make any improvement in these areas.

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