Inclusive Juries: Access for People Who Are Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Blind or Have Low Vision (report), chapter 13: Adjustments to enable jury service

Summary

A Victorian law reform report on enabling people who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or have low vision to serve on juries; its chapter 13 covers hearing loops, captioning, courtroom layout and jurors' own technology.

Key findings

• Reports that hearing loops are used in Australian courts, including the County and Supreme Courts of Victoria, though not every Victorian courtroom has one; consultees told the Commission that the Supreme Court has loops in every courtroom and the County Court does not.
• Quotes the Victorian Disability Access Bench Book: where loops are not in place, "judicial officers should consider whether a different courtroom is required".
• States that not all hearing aids are compatible with all hearing loops, and suggests testing this when a prospective juror visits the court before the summons date.
• Notes that real-time captioning (CART) is used in the Federal Court of Australia and the Family Court of Australia and can be combined with an audio component such as a hearing loop.
• Reports County Court consultees' concern about jurors bringing their own technology, since "Phones are removed from jurors when they deliberate", and a New York jury commissioner's account that in Monroe County only court-provided technology may be used and jurors may not use phones in the deliberation room.
• Concludes that, in general, Juries Victoria and the courts should provide the technology jurors need, and quotes a submission that jurors need time before the trial to set it up.

Limits

A law reform report built on consultations and submissions, not measurements: it gives no figures on how loops perform or are used in Victorian courts, and it does not consider Auracast. Its statement that not all hearing aids work with all loops rests on a charity's web page and a jury commissioner's comment.

Read the original

www.lawreform.vic.gov.au/publication/inclusive-juries-report/13-adjustments-to-enable-jury-service

Link checked 9 October 2026. We link to the original and do not host copies.

Cited in

• What works in courtrooms, council chambers and other meeting rooms where speech must be heard by all and kept in the room?Partly answered

Cite this source

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/vlrc-2023-inclusive-juries/

Every finding here cites its source, and who funded each source is labelled. This site does not recommend products. Found an error or a missing study? Suggest a correction.