Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Guidance (denominational, for parochial church councils)

Equal Access to Church Buildings

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/church-of-england-2021-equal-access/ · record checked 9 October 2026

  • Church Buildings Council (Church of England); theological material by the Revd Bill Braviner
  • Church of England (ChurchCare)

Independent (the Church of England's Church Buildings Council, advising its own parishes; copyright Archbishops' Council; the theological material was drafted by a Council member who is a trustee of the charity Disability and Jesus)

Summary

The Church of England's guidance to parishes on access for disabled people under the Equality Act 2010, including the permissions needed to alter a church and the consistent use of a loop and microphones.

Key findings

  • Says the Equality Act 2010 continues the duty of reasonable adjustments from the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, and that what is reasonable varies: large-print hymn books may be expected, a lift up the tower of a small village church may not. Its web page lists induction loops among the aids a church may need to provide.
  • Asks parishes to begin with an access audit, ideally produced with disabled parishioners, and to keep a plan, possibly over several years, that records for each possible improvement whether it is reasonable and why.
  • On consistency: where there is "a loop system to work with hearing aids, make sure it works and then use it consistently", which means everyone who leads or speaks uses a microphone "even if the speaker may not feel that they need to", and for some styles of worship a roving microphone as well as fixed ones.
  • Says checking that the PA is helping all worshippers, and maintenance and repair, can usually be done without permission, while works that change the building need a faculty, with consultation through the Diocesan Advisory Committee and, for listed churches, possibly Historic England and amenity societies; it adds that the faculty system gives more weight to a church's worship and mission than secular listed building consent does.
  • Encourages parishes to state their access provisions, such as loops, on their web presence, including the A Church Near You directory, and gives a Grade I listed medieval church that added a hearing loop among other access works as an example.

Limits

Guidance on physical access in general: it gives no technical advice on loops or other systems, names no performance standard and does not mention Auracast, infrared or radio systems. The cover is dated 2021; the file linked from the guidance page is version 7, created on 1 August 2025.

Read the original

www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2025-08/equal_access_to_church_buildings_v7.pdf

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Cited in

Cite this source

Church Buildings Council (Church of England); theological material by the Revd Bill Braviner. Equal Access to Church Buildings. Church of England (ChurchCare). 2021. https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2025-08/equal_access_to_church_buildings_v7.pdf (accessed 9 October 2026).

The accessed date is when this library last checked the link; use the date you read it. To point readers to this summary instead, link to https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/church-of-england-2021-equal-access/

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