Do & Don'ts for Building a Deaf House

[Mike]

Do & Don'ts for Building a Deaf House use wood floors to encourage vibrations; build square, not round, dining rooms; use 4-legged tables; do not wall up the kitchen; restrict peninsula cabinet to bottom cabinets; on-off light switch indicator installed on garbage disposals; one switch to operate both range hood light and fan; kitchen and family rooms situated in front of the house; stairs and lofts to have balusters; exterior doors to have window on the side; three-way light switches and motion-sensitive switches; bath and bedroom to have outside light switches; garages should not be built under the house;

(remember: deaf people are the not same thing as hard-of-hearing. Some deaf people can lip-read well, others don't. Some may hear a little, other don't.) Mike

[Andy Asberry]

I understand all the reasoning except the one above. Explain please.

[Doug Miller]

Serves as a doorbell, to substitute for knocking on the door to see if anyone's inside.

[Philip Lewis]

hmmm... If building specifically for the deaf, i'd imagine you'd have a "signal" light in each room, homerun to a single location that could be interfaced to several "sound queues" (doorbell, telephone (err...tty), "call for supper", etc.

I wonder if the super woofers that attach to the floor joists could be used for a similar purpose.

[Jeff Cochran]

Why four legs?

Assuming to see visitors, but every home retrofitted for deaf living I've been in has indicator lights for the doorbells, and even motion sensors on the walk/porch in two of them.

I'm assuming as opposed to closed walls or solid kneewalls to improve sight lines, but if that were actually the reasoning why isn't it extended to having glass walls throughout the house? Or at least a very open floor plan?

And why not garages in basements/below the house? What makes that a bad choice and what would make elsewhere a better choice?

Mostly curious, had a girlfriend with a deaf brother for a while and helped retrofit their house for some of these types of things, mostly light indicators for phone, doorbell, bathroom, etc.

Jeff

[Mike]

4-legged tables - easy to sit around. easy to see.

glass walls can be expensive. and they may fall off.

we can hear the cars running. beside for safery reasons. deaf people cannot hear who is coming from behind.

Mike