Contact all relevant organizations to verify available third party funding.

• Vocational Rehab Centers (ADA)
• Local Civic Organizations
• Private Health Insurance, Medicare

There are a number of Federal laws that support provision of FM technology for children and adults with hearing loss. All of these laws arise from the perspective that as a society we will make buildings, programs and services accessible to people with disabilities. Such access is grounded in a civil rights framework and a set of laws that has been evolving in America over the past forty years. With the Americans with Disability Act (ADA), advocates built upon the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin and later gender.

One key element that was not in civil rights law but was incorporated into most disability law was the principle of reasonable accommodation. This principle requires employers or other entities both public and private, to provide specific accommodations that allow children and adults with disabilities to have access to all aspects of life. The provision of FM technology is widely recognized as being a reasonable accommodation for an individual with a hearing loss.

,FM Technology: Reimbursement and the Law (PDF, 134 kB) by Donna L. Sorkin, Consumer Affairs, Cochlear Americas, VA22101, USA

References::
The Access Board, 1998. ADDAG Manual: A Guide to the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines.
Bakke, M., Levitt, H., Ross, M. and Erickson, F. 1999. RehabilitationEngineeringResearchCenter on Hearing Enhancement. Large Area Assistive Listening Systems (ALS): Review and Recommendations. Final Report to the Unites States Architectural and Transportation Barriers Board (US Access Board).
Breslin, M. L. and Yee, S. 2002. Disability Rights Law and Policy: International and National Perspectives. Transnational Publishers.
Cochlear Americas Surveys of Parents of Children with Nucleus Cochlear Implants (unpublished). Conducted January 2002 and June 2003.
National Association of the Deaf. 2000. Legal Rights. GallaudetUniversity Press.
Shapiro, J.P. 1993. No Pity. Times Books.
Sorkin, D.L. May/June 1998. Access at Walt Disney World: Magic or Real. Hearing Loss: The HJournal of Self Help for Hard of Hearing People.
Sorkin, D.L. Disability Law and People with Hearing Loss: We’ve come a long way (but we’re not there yet). The 2003 Libby Harricks Memorial Oration. Delivered April 14, 2003 at Macquarie University, Australia.
Sorkin, D.L. January 2002. Comments of Cochlear Americas submitted to the US Department of Education on the Reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Tucker, B.P. 1997. IDEA Advocacy for Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. Singular Publishing Group, Inc.
US Access Board. 2002. Draft Final Americans with Disabilities Act and Architectural Barriers Act Accessibility Guidelines.
US Department of Justice, July 26, 1991. Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations and in Commercial Facilities; Final Rule. Federal Register. Vol 56, No. 144.