Inclusion and deafness – finding a space that works

Turning down invitations

So, you have a deaf or hard of hearing friend or colleague and often when you invite them out they are busy or they cancel at the last minute. What’s going on?

Background noise

A lot of people who are deaf do have some hearing. Background noise can interfere with the ability to understand conversation and communication. People may rely on their residual hearing and lip-reading. The ability of the people they are communicating with to adjust and adapt is also a key factor. This is something you may particularly notice with older friends and family. In our 50’s our hearing starts to deteriorate with 40% of over 50’s having some hearing loss. By the age of 70, that figure becomes 70% of people have hearing loss.

What does deafness sound like?

The Hearing Heathcare Centre have a great simulation of mild, moderate and severe hearing loss. On YouTube you can put on captions on to figure what people are saying. In real life that’s not so easy. Try out the simulation and imagine how you would feel if your hearing was like someone with moderate or severe hearing loss.

Social Isolation

It’s not a lot of fun being out with a few people or a group and being with them but not being with them. If you can’t hear what’s going on you can’t engage so even if you’re with other people you are alone.

You might have spotted the signs of people struggling to follow a conversation:

• Asking you to repeat yourselves a lot
• Giving you an answer to a question or comment that is not related to what you said
• Not engaging very much
• Smiling a lot when other people talk, but not saying very much
• Leaving early

I’m not deaf

It can be a long journey for people to realise they are going deaf and then admit it to the world. Depending on who you are talking to you may get short shrift for even suggesting they may be deaf. So, what can you do?

Think about environments

Some things are obvious like loud music in pubs and restaurants. But you can ask venues to turn the music down or ask if they have a quiet area. It won’t always work but I’ve found generally staff are happy to turn down a speaker and some places may be quieter.

Think about the actual venue. You can tell from just looking at some places that the acoustics will be dreadful. If there are lots of hard surfaces, glass, metal, tiled floors the sound is going to bounce around. Soft materials like carpet and curtain absorb sounds. Some places retrofit sound baffles. These are made from sound absorbent materials that stop sound from bouncing off different surfaces.

If you are thinking of arranging a meetup you might want to check out the venue first. See what the acoustics are like or chat to the venue staff and see if they can be flexible. Other things to think about are the lighting, you can’t lip-read in the dark or semi darkness. You may also have to consider other disabilities or access needs; bar stools or bean bags may be a real barrier for some people. I talked about some other physical access issues in Mobility the in-between space.

Where sound acoustics are poor you could try meeting at a different time of day when they are less busy. Or take your custom elsewhere.

Ask the person

The expert on a person’s access needs is generally the person, ask them. Rather than focusing on their hearing loss, particularly if they are not comfortable with it. You could try something like:

‘We were going to head out for a drink after work. Any thoughts on where we can go?’

You could add in

‘The pub can get pretty noisy and makes it difficult to chat.’ Or put the focus on yourself and say you struggle to have a conversation when it’s noisy.

Different places

Having a change of venue may help. Cafés and restaurants at lunchtime may be quieter than other venues. Weather permitting you could grab a takeaway coffee in the park. For people you know better meeting up at someone’s home may work well as you are more in control of the space. You may even have the option of a social space and catch up in your work place.

Ask the person a bit more

If you are comfortable and it feels right ask the person, what can I do to help communication? If someone is hard of hearing and hasn’t admitted this to themselves, this may not go down well. For sign language users or deaf and hard of hearing people who identify as d/Deaf or hard of hearing you should get lots of suggestions.

Being inclusive

Once you start thinking about how to include different people it gets a lot easier. Having a conversation and checking in with the person about what they want and need is the best way. Sometimes you need to do this lightly without specific mention of hearing loss.

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