For May 3, 2008 Release
Florida Coordinating Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
www.FCCDHH.org
JAX AIRPORT GOES ABOVE AND BEYOND TO ASSIST TRAVELERS
WITH HEARING LOSS
Due to advocacy efforts of Judy Martin of the Jacksonville
Chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of Florida and Joan
Haber, Chair of the Florida Coordinating Council for the Deaf
and Hard of Hearing, the new Jacksonville International
Airport's concourse will have exciting new features to assist
travelers with hearing loss! The new concourse opens to
incoming passengers the evening of May 6 and to all
passengers May 7. The Official Ribbon Cutting and Grand
Opening ceremony is May 9.
Airport executives Rich Stroup and Bob Molle report
the airport has installed TTY's and are ordering a
videophone, plus all pay phones will have volume control.
Public Service Announcements will be displayed on the
Flight Information Display System (FIDS) as a scrolling
text and these announcements will display text of what
is being said verbally through the PA system. All the
televisions throughout the airport will have the captions
on all the time. Efforts are being made to get all gate
announcements displayed in real time text format.
This is something that will happen after the Concourse
opens as they are doing their research on this and
getting the airlines to agree to help foot the bill.
"I am very pleased with Rich Stroup, Bob Molle and the
Jacksonville International Airport's willingness to go
above and beyond the call to accommodate people with
hearing loss. I am also grateful to Judy Martin of the
Jacksonville Chapter of the Hearing Loss Association,
who brought the news of the construction of the new
to our attention in time to advocate for the
accommodation," said Chairperson Joan Haber.
It is estimated there are nearly three million citizens in
Florida who are deaf, hard of hearing, late-deafened,
or deaf-blind. The Florida Coordinating Council for the
Deaf and Hard of Hearing was established by the Florida
Legislature in 2004. Its mission is to serve as an advisory
and coordinating body which recommends policies that
address the needs of deaf, hard of hearing, late-deafened
and deaf-blind persons, as well as methods that improve
coordination of services among the public and private
entities and to provide technical assistance, advocacy,
and education.
................
Thanks to Judy Martin, President, HLA Jacksonville
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