How to Get Disability for Hearing Loss

While many people with mild or moderate hearing impairments can hold down steady jobs, others who have more severe hearing loss or deafness may struggle to navigate the work environment. Hearing impairments are considered disabilities according to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), so if you're still working, you're entitled to reasonable accommodations from your employer. But if you're no longer able to work due to significant hearing deficits like severe tinnitus (an ongoing ringing in the ears), it's important to know when and how you can qualify for disability benefits.

Is Hearing Loss a Disability?

Yes, you can get disability for deafness and profound hearing loss. Benefits such as Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are available to help people who are hard of hearing and unable to work full-time for at least one year. Your medical records—specifically, hearing tests known as audiometry—will be key in establishing your disabling impairment, so make sure you've had the right tests performed before you apply for benefits.

When Is Being Deaf or Hearing Loss Considered a Disability?

The Social Security Administration (SSA) awards disability benefits to people who have a medically determinable impairment that prevents them earning at or above the level of substantial gainful activity for at least twelve months. So if you have temporary deafness—for example, following a sudden traumatic injury—or your tinnitus isn't bad enough to interfere significantly with your daily routine, it's unlikely that you'll qualify for benefits based solely on hearing loss. (However, you might be covered by a short-term or long-term disability provider if you have a private insurance plan.)

How Deaf Do You Need to Be Considered Disabled Automatically?

Profound and severe hearing loss may qualify you for disability benefits automatically under Social Security's listing of impairments. To get disability under listing 2.10, Hearing loss not treated with cochlear implantation, you must have medical evidence either one of the two following test results:

• Pure tone air conduction and bone conduction audiometry. Your average hearing threshold sensitivity for air conduction must be 90 decibels (dB) or worse in your better ear, and you must have a bone conduction hearing threshold of 60 dB or worse in your better ear. Your hearing loss needs to be calculated by averaging your hearing at the sound frequencies of 500 hertz (Hz), 1,000 Hz, and 2,000 Hz.
• Word recognition test. You must not be able to repeat more than 40% of a list of standardized words spoken in a word recognition test (which tests speech discrimination).

You must be given the pure tone, bone conduction, and word recognition tests by an otolaryngologist (ENT), or a licensed audiologist. All testing should be done without hearing aids. In addition to the hearing tests, the audiologist or ENT (or another medical doctor) must examine your ears and write up an "otologic exam report" with a description of your external ear canals and tympanic membranes, along with any middle ear abnormalities.

If Social Security suspects your hearing isn't as bad as your pure tone audiometry tests indicate, the agency could send you to an audiologist for auditory evoked response testing (which measures brainwave responses to tones). The agency might send you for additional testing if your bone conduction test results are inconsistent with your pure-tone test results.

Is Disability Automatic for Hearing Loss With Cochlear Implants?

If you have cochlear implants in one or both ears, Social Security uses a different listing to determine disability, listing 2.11. The SSA will automatically grant you disability benefits for one year after the cochlear implantation—whether or not your hearing improves within 12 months.

After one year, the agency will stop paying you disability benefits unless your word recognition is still poor for words spoken at 60 dB. If your word recognition on any version of the "Hearing in Noise Test" (HINT) is 60% or less (with your implant adjusted to normal settings), Social Security will continue to recognize your hearing loss as a disability.

When Your Hearing Loss Doesn't Meet the Listing Requirements

Meeting a listing is very difficult, and many people are hard of hearing but don't meet the specific listing criteria. However, you can still get disability benefits without meeting the listing if you can show that there are no jobs you can do with your amount of hearing loss.

Social Security will first confirm that you can't continue to do your past work and then determine whether there is any other kind of work you can do. The agency will consider how your hearing loss affects your capacity to communicate, follow instructions, and do various jobs. This process is known as assessing your residual functional capacity, or "RFC."

The restrictions contained in your RFC will depend on how severe your hearing loss is. Social Security usually considers thresholds less than 40db in your better ear as mild, and won't include any hearing-related limitations in an RFC for that level of hearing loss. But for more severe hearing loss, you'll likely have restrictions in your RFC reflecting your inability to hear certain things at work. Below are some examples of RFCs for different levels of hearing loss.

• 50 dB or higher. If your hearing loss is moderate (for example, your average threshold is 50 dB, and your word recognition scores are 60% or less), you probably have difficulty hearing and following directions. This could rule out some types of jobs, including work in a noisy environment or jobs where instructions can't be given in writing.
• 70 dB or higher. If your hearing loss is severe (for instance, if your average hearing threshold sensitivity is 70 dB or worse, in your better ear), you can't do work that requires good hearing and good word recognition. This would rule out work that requires communicating with the public over the telephone or radio, or jobs that require the operation of hazardous machinery.

In some cases, Social Security could probably still find jobs you could do where hearing isn't important. But if you don't have the job skills or education to do those jobs, you may be able to get disability benefits based on a "medical-vocational allowance," especially if you're 55 or older. As with meeting or equalling a listing, in order to properly assess your RFC, the agency will want to see various audiometry tests in your medical records, including pure tone, bone conduction, HINT word recognition tests, and caloric and vestibular function tests.

Sample Medical Source Statement for Hearing Loss

One of the most helpful methods you can use to strengthen your disability case is by asking your doctor for a medical source statement explaining the extent of your hearing loss and how it affects your ability to work. Social Security values the opinions of medical providers whom you've seen regularly for treatment, especially if their area of focus (in this case, audiology) concerns your condition. Consider printing out a blank RFC form and asking your audiologist or physician if they'd be willing to fill it out.

If they agree, make sure that their opinion is supported by referring to medical tests and diagnostics that establish your hearing loss. You can click on the thumbnail below for a sample helpful completed RFC for hearing loss.

Note that in the above sample, the patient's doctor has provided dates and names of specific audiometry tests establishing very profound hearing loss—enough to meet the requirements of listing 2.10.

The sample also contains a list of work-related environmental limitations due to hearing loss that could significantly reduce the number of jobs available to the patient, who is over age 55. So if the patient's past work was in construction and he's no longer able to tolerate noisy environments, the SSA should approve his application for disability benefits even if he didn't meet the listing for hearing loss.

VA Disability Benefits for Deafness and Hearing Loss

Veterans with a service-connected hearing impairment can qualify for disability compensation from the VA. Using the Schedule for Rating Disabilities, the VA will assign a disability rating for deafness and related ear disorders under § 4.85, Impairment of Auditory Acuity. The exact percentage disability rating depends on the results of a controlled speech discrimination test and a pure tone audiometry test.

How Much Money Can a Deaf Person Get Through SSDI, SSI, or the VA?

Social Security doesn't pay a higher SSDI or SSI amount for deafness like it does for blindness. The amount of SSDI benefits paid for deafness or severe hearing loss depends on your lifetime earnings. Social Security will calculate your disability benefit by looking at your average income over your lifetime from jobs where you paid FICA taxes or self-employment taxes. For more information, read our article on how much money you can get through SSDI.

SSI benefits are needs-based and available to deaf people who have limited resources. If you're eligible for SSI, you'll receive a flat monthly rate (the "federal benefit rate") minus any countable income you've earned in that month. Many states offer modest supplemental benefits for residents who are deaf and receive SSI.

VA compensation is determined in large part by the amount of your disability percentage rating. The VA publishes tables of the current veterans disability compensation rates where you can find how much you can expect to receive given your disability rating and living situation. Veterans with a 100% disability rating for deafness may qualify for special compensation in addition to regular monthly VA benefits.

Veterans can receive both VA and Social Security benefits, although it's important to keep in mind that the two agencies have different disability criteria. Even veterans with a 100% disability rating from the VA aren't guaranteed to get SSDI or SSI, although in practice they'll likely have a strong case for Social Security benefits due to the medical records required to get a 100% VA rating.

How to Apply for Disability for Hearing Loss and Deafness

Filing for Social Security disability benefits is a fairly straightforward process. Most claimants choose to apply online at Social Security's official website. If you're filing for SSDI, you can complete the entire application online. SSI claimants who are over 18, have never been married, and have never applied for SSI before—whether for themselves or for a child—can also submit the full application online.

You can also apply for disability benefits by calling 800-772-1213 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday to speak with a representative. If you're deaf or hard of hearing, you can call the TTY number at 800-325-0778. Or, you can go in person at your local Social Security field office. Some offices require that you make an appointment first, so it's best to call ahead and ask.

Applications for VA disability compensation follow a similar procedure. You'll need to complete Form 21-526EZ, Application for Disability Compensation and Related Compensation Benefits, which you can do online using the electronic version of the form. You can also print out the form and fax it to 844-531-7818 (248-524-4260 from outside the U.S.), bring it to your local VA office, or mail it to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Claims Intake Center, PO Box 4444, Janesville, WI 53547-4444.

What Happens If Your Application Is Denied?

There are many reasons why your disability application may be denied. You might not satisfy the preliminary eligibility criteria for SSDI or SSI—perhaps you haven't earned enough to be currently insured for SSDI but you have too many resources to qualify for SSI—or the VA might not find that your hearing loss is connected to your time in service.

Many applicants are surprised to learn that even if they're unable to perform their past work, the SSA can deny their claim if they're able to perform simple, sit-down jobs. Some applicants acknowledge that they can do these types of jobs provided they have reasonable accommodations at work. If you have mild or moderate hearing loss and want to keep working, you can ask your employer for accommodations such as:

• closed captioning or live captioning
• American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter
• text phones or video relay services
• telephone amplification
• vibrating alarms or watches
• changes in workspace arrangements, or
• hearing protection.

Other applicants have had these accommodations in the past and were able to work with them in place, but as their hearing worsens over time, these accommodations no longer do the trick. If you disagree with Social Security's decision that you're not disabled, you can appeal the denial. At this stage, you should consider working with an experienced disability attorney (if you haven't already). Disability lawyers work on contingency—meaning they don't get paid unless you win—and many offer free consultations, so you can ask around to find one who's a good fit for you.