Assisted listening/handheld caption devices

[CarolAnnB]

DH wears hearing aids but has days when his hearing is worse than others. Has anyone used these devices provided by WDW and if so, were they helpful?

 

[Sandy321]

DH also needs hearing aids, and our DS has been wearing aids since he was 4 -

that being said - we didnt find the assited listening devices helpful - what we did find invaluable was the reflective captioning -

I think its worth it for you to try it, it doesnt cost anything - just find out which attractions use them
http://allears.net/pl/listen.htm
and
http://allears.net/pl/handheld.htm

(I remember thinking the hand held was heavy to carry from place to place and then finding it wasnt in synch with the attractions - but that was quite a few years ago)

For the Reflective Captioning - when you get up to a CM (usually where they count you or give you 3D glasses) tell them you require the reflective captioning - then you are put in with the wheelchair/handicap group - to go in and sit near/ but not under (esp at Animal Kingdom's Tough to be a Bug - there you have to be in the front row - but turn around to see where the red reflection box is) the red box - - usually a CM will have the mirror for you and help you - it depends on how crowded it is.

http://allears.net/pl/reflect.htm

 

[lanejudy]

Last month we tried using the assistive listening device at WDW. My DD7 uses an FM system at school but does not have regular hearing aids, and we were hoping the device would be similar (using a headset). However, we found that it had very poor reception, when it did transmit the audio through the device didn't always match the audio I heard in the attraction (and not just a delay of seconds - think Carousel of Progress and hearing and entirely different section of the show). Often by the time we got reception through it, the show would be half over, or it was such spotty reception that DD eventually said she didn't want to use it.

I don't want to discourage you from trying the device - hopefully your experience will be better than ours. Just wanted to let you know that we didn't have good luck with it. I might try it again another time, especially since it's essentially "free" (they charge your CC but credit back once you return the device).

I should add that our DD's reading ability isn't such that we are ready to try to captioning device, so I can't speak to that.

Good luck!