Effective Communication Strategies for the Disabled

Under the Americans With Disabilities Act, businesses and government facilities are required to provide effective communication for the disabled, which the Department of Justice defines as oral or written communication as understandable to a disabled person as to someone without disabilities. Physical and cognitive disabilities can make effective communication challenging, requiring you to pay as much attention to your non-verbal cues as to spoken or written language.

Communication Aids

• Businesses and government offices can use auxiliary services to provide effective communication, such as interpreters and staff capable of reading documents and describing merchandise. Technology such as closed caption decoders, hearing aid-compatible telephones and speech synthesizers can also help bridge the communication gap.

People With Cognitive Disabilities

• Break your ideas down into discrete sentences using simple words when speaking with a cognitively disabled person. Be patient and always speak respectfully. A person with cognitive disabilities often understands more than his spoken vocabulary suggests, and condescension creates resentment. Written communication directed toward cognitively disabled people should consist solely of short, simple words and sentences no longer than 20 words. Present only one idea or piece of information in each sentence and use 16-point or larger font sizes for easy comprehension when you publish documents oriented toward cognitively disabled readers.

People With Hearing Impairments

• Always face a hearing-impaired person when you speak to her, speaking clearly with a natural tone of voice. Establishments can retain a sign language or oral interpreter's services for effective communication with hearing-impaired people. Oral communication interpreters assist people with limited lip-reading abilities by silently and clearly articulating each syllable of the speaker's message to facilitate interpretation. Text messages and email simplify remote communication, along with telephone relay services using a mediator to convert verbal communication into text to relay to the hearing-impaired participant in the conversation.

People With Speech Impediments

• Let a person with a speech impediment finish her sentence and get her idea across before speaking. Never interrupt to complete her sentence; it betrays your impatience and it's simply rude. If you don't understand what she's said, let her know politely and don't pretend that you're following the conversation when you've lost its thread. Ask her to repeat herself or rephrase what you believe she meant to see if you're still on the same wavelength. Give her as much time as she needs to express her thoughts, but if you see she's growing frustrated, offer to continue the conversation through an exchange of written messages.