Housing Discrimination Faced by Persons with Hearing Impairments

…about one in four rental firms exhibited some form of differential treatment of deaf or hard of hearing callers…

Fair Housing Fact: Disability discrimination is the most common type of fair housing violation reported in Texas and the nation. The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities, including those with hearing impairments.

• In nationwide testing, about one in four rental firms exhibited some form of differential treatment of deaf or hard of hearing callers. View the investigation at: http://nationalfairhousing.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2013-01-09-Are-You-Listening-Now-Housing-Discrimination-against-the-Deaf.pdf

• Discrimination may occur when housing managers hang up on deaf or hard of hearing individuals, provide higher prices when inquiring about available units, or give disparate treatment in providing additional information about apartments, amenities and unit specials to hearing callers.

• Housing providers must accept Relay calls from people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Relay relies on the use of an operator to translate a phone call. The operator speaks out loud to the hearing person and types to the deaf person what the hearing person is speaking into the phone.

Providers should communicate the same information to all people regardless of their language preference, race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability or familial status. Persons with disabilities may request a reasonable accommodation to a program policy, practice, or procedure to allow for equal opportunity to use and enjoy their home.

Fair housing videos for the deaf and hard of hearing are available at:

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Videos

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs’ (TDHCA) 2017 Fair Housing Webinar Series is available online at: https://www.tdhca.state.tx.us/fair-housing/presentations.htm. The series provides a fair housing overview and information regarding reasonable accommodations and accessibility.

The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) is responsible for enforcing the state and federal Fair Housing Acts in the state of Texas. For more information, or to file a discrimination complaint, please contact TWC’s Civil Rights Division (TWCCRD) at 888-452-4778 or 512-463-2642, or at

http://www.twc.state.tx.us/partners/civil-rights-discrimination.