When Accessible Systems Cannot Be Confirmed

When the film started, my receiver was silent.

That moment is familiar to many people with hearing loss. I adjusted the controls, wondering whether I had done something wrong. I quietly asked others if their receivers were working. They shrugged, unsure. This uncertainty is common. People with hearing loss often do not trust themselves to know whether the problem is the system, their hearing devices, or their own settings. When there is no clear confirmation that assistive listening is active and functioning, effective communication breaks down quietly.

What stands out is how invisible this failure was to everyone else. From the outside, access appeared to be in place. Assistive listening was labeled as available. Yet there was no routine verification as part of setup and no feedback during use. Staff had no clear signal that anything was wrong, and users were left guessing. Over time, that uncertainty leads people to disengage from shared experiences rather than continually advocate or troubleshoot in public.

From a user perspective, technology that supports communication must support staff as well. Systems need simple, built-in ways to confirm that microphones, audio feeds, and assistive listening outputs are working as intended. Relying on memory, informal training, or user self-report is not enough.

Communication does not exist as a single audio feed. It moves through speakers, staff, systems, and listeners. When any link in that chain is weak, access breaks, even in spaces that believe they are inclusive.