TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) _ Despite criticism for suggesting that moving deaf people near an airport would cut down on noise complaints, the mayor says it’s a workable idea.

″I said something like, ’You may chuckle, but this may be an idea worth exploring,″ Mayor Carty Finkbeiner said Friday. ″And I haven’t changed my opinion.″

Finkbeiner said he didn’t mean to be disrespectful or insensitive. ″I didn’t say that it was a good or bad idea. My only words were that it was an interesting idea.″

The agency that operates Toledo Express Airport has been buying up nearby homes because jet noise exceeds government standards.

Earlier this week, Finkbeiner said deaf people might not be as bothered by the noise and raised the possibility of offering them homes that others are fleeing. He said a citizen had suggested the idea in a letter.

″That’s like saying let the blind work at night because they can’t see,″ said Dave Wielinski, chairman of Barrier Free Toledo, a group for the disabled.

Delores Lisac, a deaf woman, called the mayor’s suggestion an insult. She said deaf people can feel the vibrations from jets.