Northern Ireland

Aims and Impacts

• To change the attitude and engagement of service-providing organisations towards people with hearing loss, and to deliver two major relationships with service providers covering 20,000 outlets

  Since meeting Barclays and the Post Office, both organisations have been working to improve their induction loop provision across all their branches.
  We persuaded 38 companies to improve their loop provision in line with best practice.
  We undertook major work on attitudes of service providers to people with hearing loss, including the publication of two reports in Northern Ireland: Access to public services and Access to GP practices. We also carried out research with Scottish members on access to NHS services to be published in 2010. We also met with service providers including the Scottish Ambulance Service and NHS Education Scotland.

• To extend our Don't Lose the Music campaign to reach a wider audience and raise music-lovers' awareness of hearing health

  In Northern Ireland we hosted a hearing health conference in partnership with Belfast City Council to talk about our Don't Lose the Music and Noise at Work campaigns.