Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Guidance leaflet (diocesan advisory committee)

Advisory Leaflet 9a: Hearing Disability

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/st-albans-dac-2025-hearing-disability/ · record checked 9 October 2026

  • Diocese of St Albans Diocesan Advisory Committee (with thanks to the Revd Martin Shaw)
  • Diocese of St Albans, Church of England

Independent (the Diocesan Advisory Committee of the Diocese of St Albans, which advises the diocese's parishes on church buildings)

Summary

A one-page leaflet advising parishes to keep their hearing loops working and checked, to guard against electrical interference, and not to discard a working loop when Auracast is offered.

Key findings

  • Says a well-run sound system helps most of a congregation but may not be enough for people with moderate to severe hearing loss, and that "UK Equality legislation requires" a loop's installation "where reasonably possible".
  • Warns that a sound system operator who does not use loop-enabled aids cannot know directly whether the loop works, and suggests a suitable calibrated testing device or volunteer hearing-aid users to check it.
  • Warns that electrical work, "especially new LED lighting with dimming", may cause interference, and asks churches to make sure the contractor does not leave them with it.
  • Describes Auracast as a newer technology, developed with involvement from hearing-loss charities, that sound system contractors are likely to propose for new or upgraded installations, and calls it likely to be worthwhile in the long run.
  • Advises against rushing: hearing-aid suppliers are only starting to offer Auracast, aids in use typically last five years or more, and whether NHS aids will include it is uncertain. "So don't discard a working loop system just because you'd like to have Auracast"; it says both can be used at the same time.

Limits

A short advisory leaflet with no data or references; its statement of what equality law requires is the committee's own summary. It names no loop performance standard. Dated May 2025 on the leaflet; the file was created on 21 May 2025.

Read the original

www.stalbansdiocese.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Hearing-Disability-leaflet-9a.pdf

Link checked . We link to the original and do not host copies.

Cited in

Cite this source

Diocese of St Albans Diocesan Advisory Committee (with thanks to the Revd Martin Shaw). Advisory Leaflet 9a: Hearing Disability. Diocese of St Albans, Church of England. May 2025. https://www.stalbansdiocese.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Hearing-Disability-leaflet-9a.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/st-albans-dac-2025-hearing-disability/

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