Hearing loss or sight loss needn’t mean job loss By Dan Williams Dan Williams, Founding Director of workplace accessibility and inclusion experts Visualise Training and Consultancy, looks at how challenges faced by employees with hearing loss or visual impairment can be overcome.
H
earing loss, deafness, tinnitus and sight loss affect 14 million UK people so being fully aware and catering for
the requirements of any staff members with additional
needs is essential for inclusive employers.
follow-up appointments. When conducting online or face-to-face DSE assessments, do you ask employees if they experience hearing or sight
As these disabilities are often invisible, employers need to be
difficulties? With hearing loss, these
aware of the barriers colleagues may be facing, so speaking
may include problems with background
openly about how hearing or sight loss affects their ability to
noise, hearing on the phone or in
work is vital.
meetings and not hearing the fire alarm
This may cause inhibition, embarrassment and anxiety and as a result, pretending all is fine and understating the effects is common so encouraging employees to speak out in a relaxed
face-to-face environment helps. Ideally, hearing and sight checks should accompany regular staff health reviews in a reassuring way to communicate that support is available. If any changes to hearing levels or sight are identified, employees may need to be granted time off to attend
when in isolated areas such as bathrooms and stairwells. Sight loss challenges may include difficulties with reading small print or text on the screen, glare, dry eyes and increased instances of trips and falls. For most employees with one or more of the above conditions, there should be no need to change jobs as extensive support and adjustments are available. A workplace assessment will identify any issues that may be worrying an employee and the follow-up report will
recommend implementing often quite simple adjustments to ensure employees can perform their roles more effectively. As you’ll know, employers are under a ioh.org.uk
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