Access to Work - help for the hearing-impaired - General - Diversity and inclusion

6 Access to Work - help for the hearing-impaired

David | 0 Posts

19 May, 2023 14:13

Asking for me personally: I'm well-aware of DWP Access to Work provision for disabled employees and am presently in touch with them about possible help with fully hearing proceedings at Council meetings in my current small village Parish Council (PC) Clerk part time job role.

I'm totally deaf in one of my ears and not 100% with the other one, so even with hearing aids etc it's often very difficult if not impossible to make out all that's being said, especially by people speaking from some distance away.

If any colleagues have any guidance to offer, I'd be most interested to hear of their experiences (PC meetings are normally in village Parish Hall and wondering if any microphones / hearing aid loops might help in there.) I already have directional microphones etc for my hearing aids, but find that these are often of limited or no use.

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Ian | 0 Posts

19 May, 2023 14:34

i don't have any first hand experience but remember a stall by a company called Contacta at a show I was at, they were talking about portable hearing loops for use in churches etc so might be similar
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Nichola | 0 Posts

20 May, 2023 22:40

Hi,

I can help with this. I use AtW.

For meetings they may suggest a BSL interpreter if you use BSL, however there is some assistive tech, which you may find really useful.

Caption.Ed would be useful, along with a microphone. It is transcribing and note taking software. It converts speech to text, and you can write notes alongside the transcript, which creates a time stamp. You can then save the transcript and notes for future reference. It can be hard to keep up, but having the notes recorded can give you that peace of mind.
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Andrew | 0 Posts

31 May, 2023 15:00

Hi David,

I am profoundly deaf myself and my wife is hearing-impaired and has recently come across something that I think you are after...

https://speak-see.com/

This is a new thing, which has come out in recent years, and I think could be a way forward for people with hearing loss. My wife has seen this in real life, spoke very highly about it, and can see the benefit it offers. It is becoming widely known with Access to Work and I am considering this for myself.

I understand there is a small fee to purchase the equipment that AtW can cover.

I hope this helps.
Andrew
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David | 0 Posts

31 May, 2023 17:16

In reply to Andrew:
Very many thanks All for the kind suggestions

Leaning towards eg www.fmhearingsystems.co.uk/.../

- but expensive!!
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Sharon Lesley | 0 Posts

1 Jun, 2023 09:42

In reply to David:
David
I have had a few staff have Roger pens linked to their hearing aids, and one staff member also had a table speaker under the Roger branding. They all found the equipment they had really effective, so although fm hearing systems are expensive I have only heard good things about them.

Sharon
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David | 0 Posts

1 Jun, 2023 10:45

In reply to Sharon Lesley:
Hi Sharon

Thanks for the info
(I already have a Roger Pen, which is quite effective at short distances but not at all picking up those at a distance whereas the mic. is supposed to work at up to 20m distant. As you say, they're expensive too!)
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