From Marvel to PBS, Ira Rubenstein is Advocating for Accessibility Across the Industry

Meet Ira Rubenstein, PBS's Chief Digital and Marketing Officer, who's spent his career shaping how we consume digital content.

For the past 25 years, Ira has been navigating hearing loss in the corporate world at companies like Marvel, Sony Pictures, and Fox. He started with hearing aids, and when his right ear went completely deaf in 2010, he became one of the first people to test cochlear implants for single-sided deafness in FDA trials.

Now with bilateral implants and serving as Vice Chair of the Hearing Loss Association of America, he's using his position to push for real change - from making sure PBS employees have hearing aid coverage to advocating for better captioning at major industry events.

Check out some key takeaways from our conversation below and be sure to watch the full episode of The Buzz right here:

The Journey from Stigma to Self-Advocacy

“I don't really feel like it has impacted my career, it hasn't impacted my personal life or things... I think that stigma is probably more legacy because of how clunky the devices used to be. And I definitely think that tide is changing... I don't think it's as big of a deal as it once was.”

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Today's hearing devices blend seamlessly with everyday staples like AirPods, making them practically invisible in professional settings. But beyond the devices themselves, what's really changing is how people approach their hearing needs. Rather than hiding their hearing loss, more professionals like Ira are actively requesting accommodations at conferences and meetings. This creates ripple effects across industries, encouraging others to speak up and helping to normalize accessibility features in professional spaces.

Technology That Works For Real Life

“If you can imagine having noise cancellation headphones with a microphone that's going to focus on the person in front of you, it'll just make life so much easier... And the AI and the way it's getting more sophisticated in all these devices to be able to automatically adjust the program to the setting that you're in is just going to continue to make things so much easier.”

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Take noisy restaurants, a classic challenge where background chaos often drowns out conversation. New AI-powered systems can now zero in on the voice you want to hear while filtering out the clatter of dishes and distant conversations. This smart adaptation happens automatically, adjusting to your environment without manual tweaking. These advances mean less time fiddling with settings and more time focusing on the conversation at hand.

Finding the Right Care Makes All the Difference

“I always hear, I got hearing aids - they didn't work. And what I always tell people is change your audiologist. It's not a comfortable thing to say, but it's a little art and it's a little science... every person's different and every situation's different and every audiogram is different.”

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The same hearing aid can perform dramatically differently depending on how it's programmed. Ira's experience at UNC with Dr. Dillon is a great example - she tries different programming strategies, treating each patient as a unique case rather than following a one-size-fits-all approach. This personalized care was the difference between success and frustration with his cochlear implants, showing why finding the right audiologist matters as much as choosing the right device.

Breaking Down Barriers Through Shared Goals

“I'm a middle child. My wife likes to call me Switzerland. I really want to solve this disconnect that I see between the two communities because we're both fighting for accessibility. We're both fighting for inclusivity.”

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As someone who identifies as "deaf with implants," Ira occupies a unique space between communities. His experience navigating different identities shapes how he approaches advocacy at PBS and HLAA. Rather than getting caught in debates about terminology or identity, his focus on practical progress like hearing adi coverage and captions at industry conferences shows how leadership positions can be leveraged to benefit broader communities regardless of how they identify.

The Next Generation of Accessibility

“The other interesting thing that's happening with captioning is actually what's happening on TikTok and the preference of the Gen Z audience to have captioning on... people are using it more and more because the younger generation, that's how they prefer to watch.”

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Movie theaters resisted open captioning for years, assuming it would only serve a small audience. But as Ira points out, in a room of 100 people, at least 10 would benefit from captioning - and that's just counting those with hearing loss. The real number is much higher when you include people watching in noisy environments, non-native speakers, or anyone who processes information better with visual text.

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