As a construction business, you’ll already know about your obligations under the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 and the information and advice available from the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) website.
But did you know that in the UK, according to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), one in three adults (or approximately 18 million people) are deaf, have hearing loss, or tinnitus? Of this number, 1.2 million UK adults are estimated to have hearing loss severe enough that they’d not be able to hear most conversational speech.
What can you do?
There are many tools and guides available to help communicate even more effectively with those who have a form of hearing loss. For example speech to text apps, which can offer real-time transcription of voice to text, could help you discuss a quote or project with a client who has a form of hearing loss.
With many Master Builders also using social media to showcase and promote their work, RNID has provided a guide (based on information from the platforms themselves) on how you can make your videos accessible to those who are deaf or have hearing loss (or prefer to watch on mute). You can find that guide here.
RNID also have a great resource around other tools to help with communication with those who are deaf or have hearing loss which is available here.
Looking after your and your team’s hearing
If you’re also concerned about your own hearing, you can find more information here, including the RNID’s free online hearing test.
Information on how to support your staff who may have a form of hearing loss can be found here.
Further details on how you can protect your hearing Protect your hearing - RNID including specific noise at work guidance HSE: Noise at work – health and safety in the workplace.
Authors
Iain Kirtley
With over 20 years’ experience of membership bodies, not for profit organisations and the private sector, Iain joined the FMB in August 2023 from the Chartered Institute of Building where he worked with construction companies of all sizes to support them with training, development and accreditation.
