At the end of fifth week, Cherwell published an investigation into the provision for disabled students across the University, with the somewhat unsurprising finding that “lack of coordination between University and College authorities is currently the biggest hindrance to provision for disabled students”. Good intentions and well-meaning policies fall somewhat flat when implemented.
Last week, it was Disability Awareness Week and only the third week of this term in which I was able to hear my lectures. I am one of about two million people in the UK who rely on hearing aids to compensate for hearing loss. I am also a keen tuba player, lovingly tend to a Bromeliad called Sven, and appreciate a good bit of knitwear, and so hated when I had to be defined instead by my hearing impairment, as my life revolved around bringing together disparate people and departments in order to sort out basic arrangements for my needs.
I am a second-year music student, and second and third year music students often share lectures in Examination Schools (namely the North and South Schools). The issue with these rooms for a hearing impaired person centre on the fact that they are large and have a boomy acoustic. Unlike our ears, hearing aids are fairly unsophisticated at picking up important sounds and fading out background noise. As a result, often that one person with the seemingly incurable cough, or who appears to be noisily making an origami chinchilla out of the handout, can be better heard than the lecturer. It is also harder to lip read, a dubious skill to rely on at best, as there is still some distance from the lecturer to the front row. This is made less of a challenge, if not totally sorted, by the use of a T Loop.
Hearing Induction (T) Loops are a system used to amplify sound from a particular source via a magnetic field that can then be picked up by hearing aids. Their provision is required where reasonably possible by the Equality Act 2010. In the case of lectures they are invaluable as, once turned to the ‘T’ setting, hearing aids will only pick up sound heard by a single microphone. They are fairly ubiquitous – all lecture halls have them installed, but also places like taxis, post offices, theatres and churches make use of T Loop technology. I was surprised, therefore, when I encountered so little knowledge of the system when I first went to lectures at Exam Schools.
Before my first lecture, I enquired as to the nature of the T Loop system in my exam hall, as often they require neck-pieces to pick up the signal and transmit it to the hearing aids. After explaining to the steward what the T Loop was, he followed with a few minutes of confused walkie-talkie conversation with a colleague, and I was informed that it should all be fine. Having disclosed my disability to the DAS, and being known as a hearing impaired student in the music faculty, I was surprised that my asking about provisions hadn’t been expected, and that the staff at Exam Schools hadn’t been informed of my needs. Unsurprisingly enough, given the confusion, the T Loops weren’t working, so I again approached the Information Desk and was told that if I arrived early for my next lecture, they would ensure that it was turned on in time.
I turned up an hour early, again was told that it was switched on and should be fine, and again it wasn’t. I was informed that a sound engineer would fix the problem before the next lecture. More lectures without T Loops, and each time I approached the desk I was told something different – to try sitting in a different place, getting the lecturer to move closer to the microphones on the lectern and so forth. I managed to find the sound engineer who stated that the T Loop systems had been installed some time ago and that he’d just assumed that they were on all of the time, but now that I had brought it up, he would check. By now it was second week, and I was already beginning to get behind on work.
By this point I had also approached the Disability Advisory Service about getting some temporary portable T Loop systems to tide me over, and while they were going about sorting this out, I had a lecture where a microphone obviously set up as part of the T Loop system had appeared by the lectern. It still didn’t work. On approaching the Information Desk, once again, I was informed that actually the system did involve a neck-piece, that this was on order, and that it could arrive at any point between a week’s and a month’s time. The member of staff running the desk, with whom I’d become well acquainted by this point, acknowledged how poor this was. I couldn’t help but agree.
However, a well-timed email to the DAS detailing how much work I now had to catch up on seemed to somehow speed up this process, and by my next lecture, a neck-piece was waiting for me at Exam Schools, which I now pick up and drop off after every lecture.
Comparing this farrago of information and action at Exam Schools to my treatment at college – where they researched technology like vibrating fire alarms and T Loops before I came, and always are concerned about my welfare – the dichotomy in treatment is obvious and frustrating.
I cannot be the only deaf or hard of hearing person to ever have had lectures in Exam Schools, and I am concerned for those who would not – or could not – kick up the fuss that I had to. Sensory impairments, by their nature, affect communication with other people, and my concern is a standard one – that people afraid to speak out will just fall through the net.
