The venue is excited to ensure “more people will be able to enjoy high quality arts, music and culture”.
The Hub at St Mary’s today announced that independent audiology practice Cathedral Hearing has become its ‘Hearing Partner of Choice’.
The Sandford Street practice will help the venue to improve the customer experience for people living with hearing loss.
Cathedral Hearing’s principal audiologist, Laura Evans, was asked to assess The Hub’s ‘hearing loop’ system. After chatting with staff, the idea of a partnership to help people with hearing loss enjoy the venue more was formed. A regular support group will be hosted as part of this partnership. The Cathedral Hearing Team will also run regular drop-in sessions and support spoken-word events.
Laura said:
According to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, approximately 18 million people in the UK are deaf, have hearing loss or experience tinnitus. That means roughly one in three people experience hearing challenges when accessing music, arts and culture.
I’m delighted that The Hub team asked us to help them transform both the experience of existing visitors but show others, who may be hesitant to visit venues like this, that it fully embraces and welcomes those with hearing difficulties, making arts, culture and music accessible to all.
Helen Campbell, who is head of fundraising and partnerships at The Hub, added that “it’s amazing how one conversation has led to a partnership that will improve our visitor experience”.
We asked Laura to assess our loop system because we wanted to ensure the best possible experience for everyone. Having chatted about the challenges of visiting venues like ours for people with hearing loss, we wanted to champion this group and support them as much as possible.
As a social enterprise, it is important for us to make our venue accessible to as many people as possible. Thanks to this partnership, we hope many more people will be able to enjoy high quality arts, music and culture in the future.
For more information on The Hub at St Mary’s visit www.thehubustmarys.co.uk. And to book a hearing consultation at Cathedral Hearing, please visit www.cathedralhearing.co.uk, or call 01543 319641.