Colleague of a person with hearing loss If one of your colleagues has a hearing loss, you can do much to help him or her improve their working life. Here you can read how.

Remember that your colleague is a person of equal worth whose ability to communicate is inhibited by the hearing loss.

It is important to be aware that people with hearing loss use more energy on hearing than people with normal hearing. They therefore get tired more easily and may even become slightly irritable. People with hearing loss need more rest and listening breaks.

Speak slowly and clearly – but do not shout. Use brief and clear sentences.

Be prepared to repeat your message several times.

If several people speak simultaneously the ability to understand speech is reduced. It is therefore a good idea to speak one at a time – it helps communication.

Make sure that your face is in full view of the person with hearing loss when you communicate. Make sure there is plenty of light and that any background light is behind the person with hearing loss.

Do not say: ‘Never mind’, if your message is not understood. It may hurt the feelings of the person with hearing loss. Try instead to rephrase your message or write some key words down.

Minimise background noise.

Make sure there is eye contact between you and your colleague with hearing loss, before you speak to him or her. Touch the person’s arm or wave to catch his or her attention.

Remember that people with hearing loss are often unable to localise sound, and may therefore startle at sounds.

When a new subject is introduced in the conversation, some key words about the new subject are very helpful for the hearing impaired person. A sentence is made up of many sounds. Contrary to you, people with hearing loss will only hear fragments of the sentence. Therefore they need to hear more sentences than people with normal hearing before they understand what the conversation is about.