Thank you for mentioning HLAA. Looks like a very beneficial organization. I just joined by making a donation.
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Your experience echoes mine (Iâm in Placer County CA, FYI).
I was told they would arrange for captioning equipment and rescheduled me 6-months later.
When I turned up to serve, someone had dropped the ball and captioning wasnât available (their one captioning system was at a different court that day).
They were very apologetic and credited me for having served (which I think means I wonât be called for another year or two).
Please let us know how it went!
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When I informed my local jury summons office of my need for captioning I thought that I would never be contacted again. But lo and behold, they told me to show up in a few months and there would be a captioner there. When I arrived I was introduced to my assigned helper, who turned out to be a regular court reporter. This system greatly cuts down the costs for the court system. I wish I could comment on how well this works, but Iâve been back two times now and still have not been selected for a jury pool.
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I was excused from jury duty (forever) because of my hearing. I sent a message in reply to the summons and was easily excused. They donât want people on the jury who have bad hearing. Older age can make a difference, too.
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Thanks much for sharing your very positive experiences! I hope I can report back similarly when/if I have an opportunity to do my civic duty.
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If you have a hearing disability and are summoned for jury duty, you can contact the court as soon as possible to request accommodations such as: Assistive listening devices, Sign language interpreters, Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), and Real-time captioning.
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I did jury duty a lot in NJ until about 15 years ago, I always had trouble hearing in the court room. When they sent the next jury duty card. I sent back the card saying that I was deaf in one ear and that I did not have a problem serving jury duty as long as they sat me on the right hand side of the judge.
They sent back saying I was exempt from future jury duty and they havenât called me to serve since.
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Captioning is good but it doesnât carry the nuance, inflection and emotions or hearing the actual speech.
Similarly, when I donât understand my wife (which is frequent) she raises her voice but it becomes and angry voice. She cannot increase the volume and projection without sounding angry. 
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Medical Note to excuse You.If they dont accept it then start and stop the Trial every 5 Minutes to have them Repeat what they said.I use Narcotice for Pain and am Banned from Jury Duty,get a Note.
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I am sure I would have to stop and ask for clarification frequently. I have to do that in the civilian worldâŚ
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Good luck finding that the âaccommodationsâ work and help! Mostly, these things are promised, but donât function properlyâjust try getting a gadget that WORKS at a movie theater.
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Yeah, movies have been a total bust for me too. Canât hear and theyâre (for me) too expensive. Iâm streaming any movies I see nowadays.
But Iâm a fan of captions, even AI generated ones like those on my phone. I use those a lot.
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I recently got selected to be on a Jury. The courtroom I was in provided amplified headphones for those who couldnât hear well. Not to say they still wouldnât be loud enough for someone with a severe hearing deficit but it made getting an exemption or being excused more difficult due to hearing issues.
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I just had my Audiologist write me an excuse for Jury Duty (in Calif), and it was accepted. The Jury Commission only requirement was that it is on Official Letterhead with name, title, contact info. Hope that helps!
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I knew I would have trouble hearing in the court room when I received a summons for Jury duty last month. I contacted my audiologist and she had a form letter that I was able to email to the government office. They took me off the roll for any future requests as well!
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I live in a state that requires a letter from a doctor. My audiâs original letter didnât cut it. (The doctor was happy to mostly copy what the audi had said.) So thatâs the first thing to check.
My take: I wouldnât want me to be on my own jury! Even thoâ I am highly functioning with HAs, I sometimes mishear. And in a jury situation, you canât use the social cues that you can use in conversations to doublecheck.
Before my doctorâs letter was accepted (Iâm now dismissed forever), I started to keep notes on my mishearings in daily life â in case I had to talk to a judge. It was eye-opening, because you donât realize how common they are. But everytime something was corrected â through closed caption, context, or vocal corrections â I jotted it down over the course of a week. Have to say, some of them were pretty amusing. But not if someoneâs life path was in jeopardy.
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Very good info. I may start keeping a log. I am still waiting on the letter from the ENT.
Thank you, Jeff
About a year ago, I reported for jury duty here in Portland Oregon, after submitting the form requesting live transcription due to my hearing loss.
At the morning gathering of potential jurors, I was asked to meet with someone who was working there specifically to provide support for people with disabilities. She provided me with an iPad that displyed live transcription of what was being said to the jurors, and she kept checking with me to make sure I had what I needed and that it was working. Ultimately, my name was not called for a trial, and I was dismissed with a large group of people who also were not chosen.
I was highly impressed by the support and kindness I experienced here!
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Absolutely! So appreciate your efforts!
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A very good experience. You are lucky.
Here in Houston, nothing was offered in the way of assistive technology.
Jeff
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