A recent court victory in California upholds the idea that people with hearing loss and people who are Deaf have the right to their preferred disability accommodation.

The Watson vs. Anti-Recidivism Coalition settlement reaffirms that effective communication is required under the ADA — and more importantly, that the specific accommodation requested is given “primary consideration.”

In this case, Tremmel Watson needed and asked for CART — live captions provided by a human. Watson claimed that automatically generated captions did not provide effective access for him, due to inaccuracies that could lead to misunderstandings.

Tremmel and his attorney Kenneth Odiwe explain more in this article. We’d like to add that the 7-day rule the article mentions may be specific to Tremmel’s situation. The ADA does not specify a time frame for accommodation requests, but it does say, “covered entities may require reasonable advance notice,” but not “excessive advance notice requirements.” Also, walk-ins are to be honored “to the extent possible.”

Also, please note the ADA requirements vary based on the category — called a Title — that the business or venue falls into. For example, Title I relates to employment, Title II relates to state and local government, and Title III relates to theaters, nonprofits, retail and other places.

Still, this is a huge victory that should help Deaf and hard-of-hearing people get the accommodations they need to participate equally and fully.