Top 20 Deaf Friendly Cities in the U.S.

We are getting addicted to Top 10 lists and found that there is actually a website, of course, devoted to identifying top 10 of everything!  Top 10 min golf courses, top 10 diners - everything you could ever want!

A couple of weeks ago we found and republished the list of the Top 10 noisiest cities around the world. Today, we are presenting the Top 20 Deaf Friendly U.S. Cities - good information to know as you make your late Summer and Fall travel plans.

Here is a graphic which lists the Top cities by region:

Deaf411 surveyed 3,700 deaf Americans by asking if they considered the current city they live in is “Deaf-Friendly.” The survey also included questions about accessible recreational activities, community events, resources in these cities for deaf people, etc. 

An analysis of the data indicated that there are common characteristics of a deaf friendly city. For example, the presence of a nearby school for the deaf with many local residents.  Another characteristic is that businesses, hospitals and emergency workers are sensitive to the communication needs of deaf residents.

Availability of captioned movies and sign language interpreters serve as a good marker of a deaf friendly city although there are cities with a large population of deaf residents with inadequate accessible services. 

The following summary graphic for the West region shows a simple checklist of service availability in select cities for the deaf populations which helped determine the final top 20 list:

West	Denver, CO	Fremont, CA	Los Angeles, CA	Seattle, WA	Tucson, AZ
Education
Deaf residential school
Deaf day school
Mainstreamed Deaf Program
Recreation
Deaf sports team/events
Deaf Club
Deaf Coffee/Chat social
Festivals/Trade Shows
Deaf Senior activities
Captioned movies
Accessibility
Interpreted events
Religion services
Enough interpreters
Community
City/state government sensitive to deaf needs
City prepared help deaf in emergency
Local hearing good attitude to deaf
Resources
Employment or VR service for deaf
Social service agency help deaf
Local deaf directory/phone book/website
NOTES        Yes (one or many). All data is based on survey responses, and is verified for accuracy whenever possible. Some responses may be considered as opinion rather than factual.