​Accessible Hearing Solutions  helps improve accessibility by providing municipalities with free consultations and site assessments. Site assessments educate organizations about the best ways to improve communication and understanding in locations such as counter-service areas, meeting rooms, and auditoriums. Our assessments provide a written report detailing communication areas that are causing barriers and the best ways to improve accessibility for your customers or clients who are hard of hearing to ensure compliance with provincial accessibility standards.  Reducing barriers for people who are hard of hearing in areas such as museums, airports, service centers, businesses and courtrooms creates a more inclusive society.
For more information on how we can help, contact Accessible Hearing Solutions at [email protected].

Nova Scotia's government has recently moved forward with its promise to help make Nova Scotia a more accessible and inclusive place to live and work. Bill 59, which is now law, is intended to:

A. Achieve accessibility by preventing and removing barriers that disable people with respect to:

• The Delivery and Receipt of Goods and Services: Provincial accessibility standards for delivering and receiving goods and services focus on 1) Service providers who interact with people who are hard of hearing 2) The use of assistive devices when accessing services such as counter loop systems, room loop systems, FM systems, IR systems, personal sound amplifiers, tour guide systems, and emergency notification systems 3) How people who are hard of hearing obtain goods and services 4) How service providers are trained to service people who are or hard of hearing.
• Information and Communication: Provincial accessibility standards in information and communication ensure that Nova Scotian’s who are hard of hearing receive and share the same information. This means making all forms of information and communication in an accessible format (e.g., American Sign Language), accessible websites and technologies, (e.g., closed captioning), and standards for communicating with people who are hard of hearing.
• Public Transportation and Infrastructure: Provincial accessibility standards in transportation help make it easier for everyone to travel across Canada. The federal government regulates air and rail. The provincial government regulates public transport such as busses. People who are hard of hearing need to have access to travel information. Examples include closed captioning on instructional videos, ASL video formats, emergency notification systems, loop systems for auditory information. 
• Employment and Education: Provincial accessibility standards are designed to create barrier-free learning environments for all students, including those who are hard of hearing. Accessible Hearing Solutions can provide site assessments and reports detailing how instruction, learning materials, and the built environment can be modified and enhanced to reduce barriers to learning people who are hard of hearing have. These barriers can include poor room acoustics, distance from teacher to student, background noise, interacting in groups with hearing students, poor room lighting, videos with no closed captioning, taking notes, and lack of connection between hearing aids and auditory teaching aids.  Also, provincial accessibility standards support people who are hard of hearing in finding and maintaining meaningful employment. People who are hard of hearing deserve equal access to employment. Accessible Hearing Solutions can provide workplace site assessments to support people who are hard of hearing. We work for businesses and organizations, and government employment offices to help support workers who are  hard of hearing find work or maintain work.
• The Built Environment: The built environment pertains to making buildings, streets, sidewalks, and shared spaces accessible. For people who are hard of hearing, assistive listening technologies, such as hearing loop, FM, or IR systems, are required in meeting rooms or large listening venues. Barriers to hearing and understanding are made in environments that have poor acoustics (e.g. reverberant), background noise (e.g., music, people talking), distance from speaker to listener, and poor lighting. Accessible Hearing Solutions can provide site assessments and develop reports to ensure built environments are in compliance with Federal and provincial accessibility standards and the National Building Code.

• A prescribed activity or undertaking

B. Provide for the involvement of persons with disabilities, the public sector and other stakeholders in the development of accessibility standards
C. Facilitate the timely implementation of accessibility standards with a goal of achieving an accessible Nova Scotia by 2030
D. Monitor, review and enforce compliance with accessibility standards
E. Establish an Accessibility Directorate that is responsible for supporting accessibility   initiatives and advancing broader disability-related issues.  ​

​​https://novascotia.ca/accessibility/
​https://www.nslegislature.ca/legc/bills/62nd_3rd/3rd_read/b059.htm