reenactors with a disability

[bobbyjoe49]

hello guys i am in need to find out some information since i was unable to find the commission or someone of a high rank such as a general or somebody with details on reenactors and safety etc. there is a person who is currently a reenactor has a hearing aids and the unit told him if he has hearing aids even though he can hear without too but he is "hard of hearing" speaks very very well his capt told him please use it and somehow i know something is missing here reenactors for civil war do not have anyone with hearing aids as a reenactor this is far more a mistaken idea here.I myself have never heard of a reenactor with hearing aids people will laugh if they see that and make fun of that unit as it is. there has also been issues now growing among units to deny and reject those peope who have hearing aids by turning them away. and there is file of people filing for discrimination and they said its not discrimination they just said they DO NOT WANT ANYBODY TO JOIN WITH THOSE HEARING AIDS STAY OUT period... like that what can you all tell me on this issue it is a safety matter as strange as it may sound but need to find all the details and where it can be found, then it can be shown the rules about joining people are mistakenly letting people join reenactment for civil war and knowinly can be suspended for allowing them in and could result in a lawsuit if people with hearing aids are caught in a unit,,,, i will await any response to these matters before going further thank you

[Spinster]

Bobby Joe,

In all my years, I must say this is a new one.

I've read page after page of regulation from multiple units and umbrella groups over the years.

Not once have I seen anything on this issue.

So. How about citing chapter and verse as to which organization this is?

[Jeffrey Cohen]

One of my most trusted cannoneers has a hearing aid, and no it's not from serving on the gun. No one's ever mentioned anything to us, and I've never seen anything written down.
The closest thing would be insistence on period eyewear for those of us wearing prescription glasses. Who can forget the reenactor with the aviator glasses in the movie Gettysburg.

[RJSamp]

If we kicked out of the hobby all the reenactors who can't hear the bugle calls.....

[TB1861]

They hear the bugle calls, they treat them like car alarms, somebody else's problem.

[R Beasly]

Uh, BobbyJoe, I'm not sure the point you're trying to get across. Let me see if I have this right.

You're saying you wear hearing aids and that a unit or unit's won't let you play with them while wearing your hearing aids. And that if they don't let you play with them, you are thinking of filing a lawsuit to make them let you play.

IF i have that right, it doesn't seem a good way to make friends in the group you are looking to join.

Mr. Beasly

[Isabella_Grey]

I've seen reenactors with hearing aids, and I haven't heard of any issue arising out of it. I've seen and dealt with more issues when it came down to men wanting to wear the hunting orange ear plugs...THOSE are something that a person notices, from relatively far away. The hearing aids are flesh colored, and really can't be noticed unless you look hard.

[billwatson2]

Never heard of this being an issue. Ditto ear plugs. Folks would prefer you don't wear magenta ear plugs, but I've seen them and so far as I know nobody complained. Seems like an unlikely issue.

[Rob Weaver]

I'm a bit hard of hearing myself, from firing the real big guns. I've seen reenactors with hearing aids. I don't think twice aboutthem. If you've run into a group that feels a modern prosthetic device like a hearing aid is unacceptable to them for authenticity or safety reasons, there's not a lot you can do about it. They are a private club with fairly narrow goals. I don't think lodging a suit against them would be either cheap or effective. You may win, but you will create such ill-will that you will never take the field with them. And you may poison the atmosphere so much that you may be the pariah at any Civil War reenactment. I don't think this is a hill worth dying on. There are many, many other reenacting groups. Contact one of them and let this group go as not suiting your needs.

[Spinster]

Well yes, folks consider the orange ear plugs to be obnoxious, especially since there are hearing protection items that do not glow in the dark.


If Mr Beasly is correct in his assessment of the situation, you won't win friends by suing them. Find another unit that will let you play. It's not hard. Folks who force the door on a playhouse usually find there's nobody in there they want to play with.