Teacher with auditory processing difficulties secures cutting-edge accommodations from employer

Hilary Jones (not her real name) is a teacher in a Northern California school district who has Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) and other disabilities. Hilary has reduced ability to filter out background noise in telephone conversations, staff meetings, etc. She routinely misses important information at staff meetings with school administration and has difficulty speaking with parents of students or taking other work-related calls from the telephone in her classroom. Hilary contacted PAI after she had been unable to obtain effective accommodations from the school district.

With the assistance of PAI law clerk Meghan Haswell and attorney Stuart Seaborn, Hilary convinced the school district to let her test a new two-hearing aid system designed to filter out background noise. The system includes a receiver that Hilary can place near the speaker at a staff meeting or anywhere in her class room. The receiver filters out background noise and transmits the “filtered” sound directly to Hilary’s hearing aids.

Hilary is one of the first people in California to use this system. She will test the new equipment for a month at the beginning of the Fall semester, and if it works, the school district has agreed to take steps to fund Hilary’s use of this equipment as she continues her teaching career.