3 ways to ensure your workplace is deaf-friendly

In the UK, 1 in 6 people are either deaf or hard of hearing.

It’s estimated that almost 7 million people in the UK could benefit from using a hearing aid, but only two million actually use one.

Deaf and hard of hearing people make up a significant percentage of the population, and as the country’s second most common disability, it’s a demographic that can’t be ignored.

If you run a small business, a department or even simply work in an office, you need to consider the fact that some of your colleagues might have difficulty hearing.

Here are 3 ways in which you can help make your workplace environment safer and easier for those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Make sure you use the available technology

Why make things harder than they have to be?

There are already plenty of incredible communication tools and Apps out there to help deaf and hard of hearing people.

These amazing hearing loss technologies help make life easier around the office and when working remotely.

Chat software allows instant communication, captioned telephone calls or remote sign language interpretation are all examples of how you can make your work environment easier for people.

Safety is a priority

Whether you’re working in an office, warehouse or outdoors, the safety of your staff is paramount.

For deaf employees, a fire alarm isn’t much good, so an inclusive workplace needs a mix of audio, visual and kinesthetic alarms to warn people of danger.

Flashing exit signs, strobe lights, vibrating desk alarms/wristbands, or computer pop-ups are all ways to warn someone who’s hard of hearing.

And of course, preventing hearing loss is also a priority.

If a work environment is particularly noisy or loud, earplugs and/or headphones should be issued for all staff.

Provide live captioning for meetings

With the pandemic confining everyone to their homes for over a year, many companies are now looking at live captioning services for their online meetings and Zoom calls.

Live captioning can help keep all staff members informed and involved with what’s going on, not just those who have difficulty with hearing.

Ad of course, with transcripts available to read back at a later date, everyone is kept on the same page about what was said and agreed – especially important during business negotiations.

As we’ve discovered during the pandemic, Zoom meetings can be a right pain in the backside, with people talking over each other, microphones cutting out, delays in the stream and background noise making it difficult to hear what’s going on.

This is difficult for a normal hearing person, let alone someone with hearing loss, but live captioning would help with all of that.

Call us for your live captioning services

If you would like to know more about live captioning for your business, then contact us today.

Making your workplace a deaf-friendly environment isn’t only the right thing to do, it’s the law.

As laid out in the Equality Act 2010, as an employer, you are legally required to make “reasonable adjustments” to accommodate those with hearing difficulties.

Live captioning is a great way to meet those legal requirements.

They provide equal access for employees, and thus comply with anti-discrimination laws, but it’s not just for deaf and hard of hearing employees, as we said before, everyone benefits from captions!