Edinburgh Fringe Festival leaves hard of hearing visitors out of the loop
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is not accessible for people who are deaf and hard of hearing, charity RNID has revealed, after undercover ‘mystery shopper’ research.
The largest charity working in the UK with hearing loss and hearing health found that only 20% of surveyed show venues in Edinburgh provided induction loops for audiences. Induction loop equipment, which amplifies speech over background noise, is essential to help hearing aid users access information about the shows and fully enjoy the performances.
RNID is now calling on the Edinburgh Fringe organisers to improve provision for deaf and hard of hearing people before next year’s events.
RNID Chief Executive, Jackie Ballard, says: “The Edinburgh Festival is a wonderful event that should be enjoyed by as many people as possible. We think that the organisers and festival customers will be disappointed to learn that there are barriers to accessing shows because induction loops are not available at the box offices and at 76% of the venues we surveyed. We’re hoping to work with organisers and individual venues to make sure that hearing aid users have a better experience next year.”
According to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), service providers must make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to allow access to disabled people so not only are the shows without fully operational induction loops missing out on potential ticket sales income from the UK’s two million hearing aid users, they’re also leaving themselves open to legal action which could easily be avoided.
James Murray, a hearing aid user from Edinburgh, “It’s frustrating that so many of the box offices and venues didn’t have induction loops because it means we have less opportunities to get information about the many shows which interest us and we don’t have the chance to enjoy the performances as much as we could. Shows are often performed in loud environments with music and noise from the audience, which make it difficult to follow what the performer is saying if no induction loop is being used. They're easy to install and operate so it's a shame that more shows aren't accessible to enable everyone to join in the fun!”
Steve Day, a hard of hearing comedian, says: “The Edinburgh Fringe is fantastic fun and a real highlight of the year for both performers and festival-goers so it’d be great if steps are taken to encourage more hearing aid users to get their cultural fill… and hear my jokes more clearly the next time I perform!”
For more information about RNID’s induction loop campaign, which is asking hearing aid users to report poor provision of induction loops, visit www.rnid.org.uk/inductionloops or email campaigns@rnid.org.uk
Comments
No campaign for signed access ? why are we NOT suprised at this RNID aspect... sooner this charity drops the 'D' at the end the better...
Posted by: MM | September 2, 2009 04:57 PM