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Telehealth and Captioning/text box- Americans With Disability ACT

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Laila L. Muhanna, MS, LPC, CPRP

I have a client did not have any hearing problems when we started therapy. She noticed her hearing was getting worse and found out she has a tumor that is causing her to lose her hearing. She is now considered hearing impaired and may lose all of her hearing.

So, here is my question: Considering the laws with the ADA and providing resources for individuals who are hearing impaired, I believe that SP may want to look further into providing captioning during live tele-health sessions or at the least a chat box. I have tried a variety of things - using messaging that SP provides, but that does not work well for fuidity of sessions. I will sometimes share my screen and write what I am saying into a word document and she can read that. But that is VERY time consuming. 

There must be someway SP can implement some form of supplemental assistance for those who are hearing impaired. PLEASE HELP!!

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Comments

18 comments

Date Votes
  • Gillian

    Our Telehealth feature does not have a closed captioning feature. However, some clients with similar needs have opted to use 3rd party closed captioning or voice-to-text services. Such a service can be used simultaneously on a computer while using Telehealth or a voice-to-text app can be downloaded on a phone and used during the call. These options will allow the audio to be captured and read in live text format. That being said, we do not have a particular service to recommend over another.

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  • Tessa Heuermann

    I see that this question and Gillian's reply are from a year ago. Is it still the case the Simple Practice Telehealth Service does not offer closed captioning?

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  • Katherine Jones

    Following and also wondering if now in almost 2022, SP has finally come around to adding CC to make their platform more accessible for all. It seems long overdue. 

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  • Andrea Scharlatt

    Seriously. I have to agree here. This is truly something you should have figured out by now.

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  • Francesca Benning

    Hi, just wanted to follow up on this post to see if any progress had been made to adding CC to the telehealth platform? I just took on a hearing impaired client and am having to use google meets to have session. I would much rather be using SP's platform. 

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  • Daya M. Deuskar

    Hi there, I am here also to affirm our practice's need for captioning for both clients and clinicians alike in the Deaf/HOH community. We shouldn't have to turn to a competing platform (Zoom, in our case) just for caption access when those services offer AI captioning absolutely free and are covered by free BAAs.

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  • Erin Harrell

    Another request for an overdue feature. The thread for voting on changes says both "in review" and "in process" but there aren't any dates on those postings. 

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  • Kasryn Kapp

    I am also having to turn to a competing platform for captioned videoconferencing. This is long overdue and a big item on the "con" side of my pro/con list for this EHR. Thanks.

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  • Jaya Roy

    I am also considering another platform because of this. Captioning should be offered for telehealth for clinicians and clients. This should be a free feature.

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  • Danielle Trottier
    • Edited

    I would also like to strongly advocate for live captioning software to be included in Simple Practice's Telehealth platform. This is a basic accessibility feature needed for Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals as well as people with other disability and accessibility barriers (i.e. technological access issues like a broken smartphone/computer speaker). Per the ADA, clinical PROVIDERS bear the legal burden of making their services accessible to people of all ability levels. Continuing to perpetuate this easily remedied barrier to access is an issue of illegal discrimination. I am calling on the leadership at Simple Practice to immediately prioritize incorporating digital access tools such as live captioning/speech-to-text software as a part of Simple Practice's Telehealth services.

    - Danielle Trottier, LICSWA

    For further information and resources, go to https://www.section508.gov/ 

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  • Christina Peterson

    How do we get any update on this from SP?

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  • Laila L. Muhanna, MS, LPC, CPRP

    Hi guys! I am the OP. I still use SP but unfortunately have had to go to a 3rd party platform due to this issue. I loved the idea of the ease having all features being on one platform (SP) but this issue - along with a few others with the Telehealth feature has resulted in me completely switching over to the third party platform for Telehealth and paying extra money for it. I feel SP doesn’t always prioritize specific issues with the platform as they should, however, I do stick with them because in the end it is simpler (seriously) for me to use this platform for billing, documentation, appointment reminders, calendar stuff, etc than other EHRs I have looked into.

    SP 100% should take care of this issue and there is no excuse that they haven’t by this point.

    Just wanted to share my position on this!

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  • Tehya Rice

    I am just joining Simple Practice and I'm shocked to find no captioning and that it has not been added or addressed since the initial question was asked! 

     

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  • Brooke Greenig

    I have been with SP for a year now. I do need this as an offered service. I am hoping that drawing attention to this thread will elicit a response from SP as well. 

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  • Emma Whitcomb

    I’d definitely like to see this feature as well. I have to echo what everyone else said. I have called and they were unable to provide any information over the phone about accommodation features across the board.

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  • Kelsea Pelletier

    I also need this function ASAP! What can we do as clinicians for this request to be met by SP? It's absurd that it hasn't been acknowledged yet! 

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  • Tehya Rice

    If simple practice won’t add in captioning, I wish they would let us opt out of the telehealth platform entirely for a lower monthly fee so I could afford to outsource my telehealth to an accessible platform. I like the EHR overall but the lack of captioning and lack of financial discount/opt out option has me feeling stuck and considering leaving Simple Practice entirely.

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  • Emma Whitcomb

    For all of us who comment here - I spoke with customer service again today who stated this is the only way to address this issue and they have no ability to accept complaints due to the non-compliance or any other options available for those of us who need to utilize it or actual suggestions. They claim it's part of their "plan" in the future despite it being over 2 years since the thread was began and that we should "just keep commenting and voting here." 

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