can you be required to wear a hearing aid?

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Daft

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I was curious.

Legally, can an employeer require someone to wear a hearing aid? Are they even legally able to bring up the subject?
 
I've never heard of it being a requirement.

Not everyone can be helped with hearing aids.
 
I've heard someone mention it on this site actually, that they were required by the USDA to wear their hearing aid. I suppose if your employment requires you to pass a hearing test and you fail it without and pass it with then it could be a requirement, similar to requiring someone to wear their distance vision glasses while driving a commercial vehicle. Nobody disputes that is a good idea, do they?

It would have to be determined that hearing was absolutely essential to the job description and could not be replaced by other appropriate equipment or service, however, e.g. interpreter, vibrating/flashing warning technology. I can't yet think of a situation where being able to hear is irreplaceable in the way that vision would be for driving, but in that situation I think an employer could require you to wear your hearing aids during duty hours in order to meet the conditions of employment. It would be less clear if they have to pay you during hearing aid repair period or if they have to provide you with alternative employment, as you are not "sick" and are willing to work but have been let down by technology.
 
VamPyroX said:
I've never heard of it being a requirement.

Not everyone can be helped with hearing aids.
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Good point- not everyone can be helped. If it was a law- then a doctor note would bee needed to put a stop to that employer.

Daft said:
I was curious.

Legally, can an employeer require someone to wear a hearing aid? Are they even legally able to bring up the subject?
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good question. can they prove it to you first? ask for a reference before battling them.

RoseRodent said:
I've heard someone mention it on this site actually, that they were required by the USDA to wear their hearing aid. I suppose if your employment requires you to pass a hearing test and you fail it without and pass it with then it could be a requirement, similar to requiring someone to wear their distance vision glasses while driving a commercial vehicle. Nobody disputes that is a good idea, do they?

It would have to be determined that hearing was absolutely essential to the job description and could not be replaced by other appropriate equipment or service, however, e.g. interpreter, vibrating/flashing warning technology. I can't yet think of a situation where being able to hear is irreplaceable in the way that vision would be for driving, but in that situation I think an employer could require you to wear your hearing aids during duty hours in order to meet the conditions of employment. It would be less clear if they have to pay you during hearing aid repair period or if they have to provide you with alternative employment, as you are not "sick" and are willing to work but have been let down by technology.
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Do you know that at this time in NYS that CDL drivers have to pass a test what you call a whisper test? Right now I want to join up with forces to help to battle the hearing requirement.
 
When I was younger I knew the VP of GE, he was a friend brother in law. He gave me a job at GE, and I had to take a hearing test ! During the test the woman giving me the test got frustrating and said to raise my hand when you hear a sound, I told her I had knew what to do, I had a lot hearing tests! I also said I was not hearing the sound! Then I had have a test reading rows of numbers , and being dyslexia I had trouble! The woman was really getting frustrated as the VP told her to give me a job! I was given a job in the basement on a copy machine and I would not be able hear people talking to me working around loud sounds! Boy that woman was glad when she was done with me! She thought I was really dumb and told my boss this!
GRR!
 
Daft said:
I was curious.

Legally, can an employer require someone to wear a hearing aid? Are they even legally able to bring up the subject?
Click to expand...

absolutely ! They sign the pay check and therefor have the right to determine what is acceptable and what is not. Yes as a condition of employment, hearing can be required. Examples, Tower operator, better be able to hear many radios and different conversations at once. I was unable to get a commercial marine license years ago because I could not hear well enough to determine direction of a bell in the fog. I contend that person with normal hearing can not either but that does not matter. Just recently a lady born w/o arms obtained a pilots license but she will never be able to get a commercial license. part of life. Big difference is commercial where you have responsibility for others and private where only responsible to yourself.
 
Rampratt said:
Big difference is commercial where you have responsibility for others and private where only responsible to yourself.
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Not quite, a private pilot can carry passengers under limited circumstances, for example they must not take money, except contributions for fuel where every adult passenger pays an equal amount including the pilot and the total paid by everyone does not exceed the cost of the fuel for the journey. If four people get together to go on a trip and the trip costs $100 in fuel everyone can pay $25 but if the pilot doesn't pay he's in breach.
 
Rampratt said:
absolutely ! They sign the pay check and therefor have the right to determine what is acceptable and what is not. Yes as a condition of employment, hearing can be required. Examples, Tower operator, better be able to hear many radios and different conversations at once. I was unable to get a commercial marine license years ago because I could not hear well enough to determine direction of a bell in the fog. I contend that person with normal hearing can not either but that does not matter. Just recently a lady born w/o arms obtained a pilots license but she will never be able to get a commercial license. part of life. Big difference is commercial where you have responsibility for others and private where only responsible to yourself.
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So you're fine with being oppressed?
 
Being currently in an interesting situation at work, I believe that they can "try" to get you to wear a hearing aid, but if you have proof it doesnt work for you (like myself) then they cant force you to wear it. However if the job requires a decent level of hearing as a condition of employment (like myself) then they can certainly restrict certain tasks that could be hazardous. However, having said that, in Canada anyways they are bound by the Human Rights code which says they cant discriminate based on disablility and therefore must provide accomodation to the point of undue hardship.

Just so you know where I am coming from, I started losing some hearing (minimal) in 2008, switched to a new job in Jan 2009 of which I was required to complete a medical evaluation. The only item on hearing was "can understand spoken conversation". Now at that time, and to some extent now, yes I certainly could do that so the Dr. checked it off. They were really trying to rush through the hiring and perhaps skipped over on accident but most of my co-workers actually had a hearing test prior to the job offer...I didnt.... oops...

Anyways fast forward a few months and people started questioning if I was having trouble hearing, which I was...more so than when I started. I had had at least 2 significant drops. So they asked if a hearing aid would help and I said I would give it a shot....A couple of models and a few $$$ later and nope hearing aids give me nadda in terms of additional speech comprehension.

So after this they decided to initiate this "fitness to work evaluation" which is a Canadian Federal Civil Servant thing to determine if I can still do the job as it is currently setup or if I need any accomodation or a different job...the last resort would be them laying me off...which will never happen cause they know it would look really bad.

Now why do I need to hear to work??? well we do a lot of field work, sometimes in very remote locations. eg 2-3 hour bushplane ride to the nearest town. If I needed to communicate out in an emergency....would I be able to do it. As I can speak perfectly obviously I can communicate out....but I may not be able to understand anything the other end is telling me.

Having said all that....I am currently severe/profoundly deaf in left ear and not much better in the right. I am going for a CI next week not because the employer wants me to but because I want to do it for myself...the work evaluation is on hold until I get the CI and we see if it helps. And in the mean time I have a few restrictions at work like not doing any of the flying work (except when it is convenient to them).

That ended up being a lot longer than I planned...sorry lol
 
have a hearing aid but it still linists me to hear certain things sometimes unclear to words what people are saying on tv so that is why i use close captioned and i have a vp for telephone. if the job requires us to wear them then I am all for it it is better to hear something and not nothing bad enough for jobs don't want to hire disable people or deaf people cause they are afraid of being sued or lose of money
 
If the job requires us to wear them then I am all for it is better to hear something and not anything bad enough for jobs do not want to hire disable people or deaf people cause they are afraid of being sued or lose of money. Thanks for sharing.
 
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