HEARING THE
MESSAGE
ACCORDING to the popular online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, some 1.1 billion people suffer from some kind of hearing impairment. Although the sense of hearing has an inclination to diminish as we grow older, hearing loss is not, as is sometimes thought, an ailment restricted to older people. People of any age can be diagnosed with some hearing impairment brought about through a variety of causes including illness. It is also commonly believed that a noisy environment can impair people’s quality of listening over a period of time. Examples include such things as loud volumes on headphones and noisy working environments. In order to help alleviate the latter, the United Kingdom health and safety at work legislation statutorily demands that employers provide quality protective ear muffs. Employees in charge of pneumatic drills or those who operate machinery such as factory presses are among the common examples, but there are many more.
Much helpful information can be found on the website of the charity Action on Hearing Loss (RNID) which is: http://www.
actiononhearingloss.org.uk The well-known UK Disability Discrimination Act (1995) which embodies all sorts of requirements covering all manner of physical disabilities, includes calls for service providers to install, as far as is reasonably possible, assistance for their hearing impaired clients. Effectively, this refers to the installation of induction loop or other systems that can
An extremely significant aspect of any audio system in churches and cathedrals (and, indeed, any public or private auditorium) is the essential extra of an audio frequency induction loop system designed to assist those many visitors who are users of hearing aids. Eric Thorn discovered that some places of worship may not yet have suitable loop systems installed. Here, he shares some basic thoughts on this essential topic.
be accessed by wearers of most types of hearing aids. Now, I have had it mentioned to me, so this is only construed in my mind as rumour or hearsay as I have been unable to substantiate it, that some places of worship did not realise that the 1995 legislation included matters pertaining to those members of the congregation who suffer from hearing difficulties. For some unknown reason there was an assumption that the 1995 Act was primarily to do with addressing other matters, such as access to buildings by the mobility impaired. Ensuring that there was proper access to their premises for wheelchair users and providing suitable
to ensure that clients and visitors with a hearing difficulty can fully take notice of anything that is being said to them as well as comprehend any other audio on the premises, such as through a public address system for instance.
Effectively this means that, in
UK law, anyone or any business that provides any service that is made available to members of the public must ensure that anyone with any disability can participate as fully as possible. And that ostensibly includes anyone with a hearing disability.
All places of worship are certainly included in this legislation. No exceptions!
accessible toilets, for instance. Although the Disability Discrimination Act continues in Northern Ireland, in England, Scotland and Wales the Equality Act of 2010 provides specific legislation for service provider businesses to ensure that all deaf and hearing impaired clients can fully participate in whatever services are on offer. Effectively, this reinforces quite clearly the requirement to install an induction loop or other system
20
Compatible systems Since the 2010 legislation most, if not all, churches and other places of worship have taken steps to ensure that their premises do cater for the hard of hearing among us. They, and other organisations, have installed or upgraded their audio hardware to ensure they have hearing aid compatible systems.
Without doubt, the most popular installations in churches are those of audio frequency induction loops. In addition to a public address system audio amplifier kit complete with microphones and loud speakers, which are generally considered
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32