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Member Stories

Our Trip

by Lou Touchette

I've written numerous articles for the EAC Newsletter in the past about my travel experiences. There just always seems to be something else to write about and here's a bit more on my latest travel.

Linda and I flew overseas a few weeks ago, returning late last night. We thought we'd beat jet lag if we upgraded to business class for our (747) flights over to, and return from, Asia. In business class they have nice wide seats that recline nicely so you can sleep.. well, sort of. Flying and ground time over was 26 hours and on the return it was 25 hours (we had a tail wind, ha!). Each seat had it's own video monitor and control panel. I even had the foresight, or so I had thought, to bring my neckloop so I could enjoy music and movies. They offer about 6 choices of movies, a number of other video choices and more than a dozen choices of music channels.

Guess what!!!! Airlines design their aircraft so people CAN NOT bring their own headphones and listen to sound. The headphones they provide (Free for Business and First Class passengers) have two jack plugs integrated into a single plug, a small jack and large one which have to both be inserted into a receptacle in order to hear. My neckloop WOULD NOT not work. Airplanes are quite noisy because of wind noise so understanding words using a standard headphone was out of the question. Also, there are no Base or Treble Control adjustments which "may" have possibly helped since I have a high frequency hearing loss. Nor, do they have Closed Captioning! As a result, I was not able to enjoy music or movies for 51 intolerably long hours on this trip.

On all (most?) airplanes, flight attendants and flight crew members periodically make announcements over the PA System. I can not tell you how many years it has been since I was able to understand a single word they have spoken. Thank God there have been no emergencies. I'd be in trouble. However, Linda tells me (repeats) what was said. But, I can't help but feel frustrated when I hear that they have said "We will be encountering some turbulence, please fasten your seat belts" or "There will be three choices of meals today, blah blah, blah blah and blah blah" or "We are passing out customs forms and if you are blah blah you need to fill out a blah blah form" any way, it goes on and on! Even inside the terminal area the announcements are impossible for me to understand. On this trip I was very blessed to have Linda with me to "be my ears" but what if she hadn't been along to help me? The thought petrifies me!

I think there should be additions to the ADA that require captioning on aircraft video monitors. Airplane Audio jacks should be neckloop compatible, and in flight announcements should be typed onto a keyboard that displays words on the video monitors. Same thing inside airport terminals. Did you know that in flight announcements ARE NOT fed through the audio system!!!! The sound only comes out of the overhead speakers!!!! Even a neckloop, had I been able to use it, would not have helped. Boy is there room for improvement... and how long has it been since ADA went into effect. Geez, what's the problem here?

Linda and I spent a lot of time in hotels during the 14 days we were in Singapore and Malaysia. In those countries they do not have Closed Captioning requirements for televisions. I have never been so frustrated as I was during those two weeks over there. There are actually quite a few American/English programs televised in third world countries these days, since the advent of Satellite TV broadcasting. Bless the USA and ADA that we can enjoy Captioning in OUR country. Pity people in other countries who do not have such luxury!

It's great to be back home, believe me! God Bless the USA and ADA!!!!

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