It was supposed to be a historic event: for the first time ever Big Brother had a deaf contestant in the house. Unfortunately, production issues between contestant Matt Klotz and the show and his lack of accommodations on the set have soured what should have been a win for inclusive representation.
Over on r/BigBrother, fans of the show rushed to Klotz’s defense as he struggled on the first night to understand the host. Here’s the main post:
“[I’m] so frustrated with production this season, apparently Matt couldn’t understand Julie on night 1 and had to go off of what others were doing around him in order to do well in the comp. I know he won and it worked out fine but it’s so ridiculous to not have any accommodations for a disabled/deaf houseguest, what are they gonna do in a Q&A HOH, or a comp where he can’t go off of visuals??”
The poster goes on to say that there hasn’t been someone disabled on the show since the first season and that “it’s insane that production didn’t do their homework on how to help him.”
It was even worse because a lot of people really vibed with him. “He just seems like a genuine good dude,” one person said.
Someone else said that Klotz can hear pretty well during a face-to-face convo but he struggles to keep up when everyone is talking around him:
“The way his hearing aid works is that it amplifies EVERYTHING and he can’t tell how close or far away a sound is coming from. So if two conversations are happening in the same room he can hear both at the same level, if one is a lot further away he can still hear it but as mumbles/non defined words.”
As to why they didn’t provide Klotz with headphones during Q and A is anyone’s guess, especially since the technology is readily available.
“There’s a type of microphone that an instructor would hang around their neck that sends the sound directly into the corresponding hearing aids. My friend is a middle school teacher and one of her students is hard of hearing, it’s an incredibly easy (and from what I understand, relatively standard) accommodation to make. Have one mic for Julie and one in the DR to give to whoever is hosting that veto/HOH comp. It’s the bare minimum.”
Someone else said that maybe the other houseguests and production weren’t really aware of just how to accommodate Klotz. It could be that everyone just assumed his hearing was perfect with his hearing aids in.
“I’m disabled and I’m definitely guilty of assuming my hardship is being willfully increased by those around me, only to find out that they were happy to change things up once I spoke up.”
Or could be a little on Klotz as well? Not in a bad way, but how was he supposed to know the type of accomodations he’d need in a brand new environment like a TV studio? Here’s what someone said about that:
“Maybe they thought, ‘Super loud speaker broadcasting to the whole area, that kind of sound would be picked up by hearing aids regardless.’ That was wrong, and they should have asked him, but this is their first time doing this with a deaf houseguest. I’m willing to assume extreme incompetence over malicious negligence here.”
Big Brother 25 airs Sundays and Wednesdays on CBS. Hopefully they will have this Klotz situation figured out by the next episode.