Posted By Kenneth Winstanley My firm currently has a member of staff that has recently found that their hearing is considerably worse than they thought. Does my firm therefore have any legal obligation to pay for a hearing aid, or is this a DDA and/or a moral issue. The said person does not work in a noisy environment certainly not above 80 dBa. We are arranging for an audiometery test which we will pay for but feel we will be opening the flood gates if we purchase a hearing aid. We do currently provide vibrator alarms which operate in the case of fire or other emergencies.

Posted By Graham Bullough Kenneth Having experienced sudden hearing impairment in my one good ear over two years ago, I think I can provide some useful advice: If the employee hasn't already done so, he/she should see his/her GP. If the hearing problem is due to excessive ear wax accumulation, it can be readily removed at the surgery. If not, the GP should suggest a referral to a specialist doctor at a hospital ear, nose & throat dept (ENT). An ENT appointment would include an audiometry test, so there's little point in your firm arranging and paying for such a test which would just show on a graph the extent to which the employee's hearing is impaired at different frequencies. If the specialist thinks the employee would benefit from having hearing aids, ENT will provide them and the batteries free of charge under the NHS. The NHS has long provided analogue type hearing aids, but is gradually changing to digital type aids which have advantages over the analogue type. These include lack of interference noise from digital equipment such as cordless and mobile 'phones - although sadly all hearing aids tend to pick up background noise from computer fans, ventilation vents, traffic, etc. If your local ENT dept won't be changing to digital aids in the near future (there are many ENT staff to retrain across the UK and hundreds of thousands of patients to be re-equipped), it is worth pursuing digital aids through the Dept for Work & Pensions' (DWP) Access to Work scheme for employees or potential employees with disabilities. Rather than go directly to a commercial hearing aid dispenser and personally pay over £2k per aid, I successfully applied through the scheme for high quality aids to be supplied at a much lower price with the cost being shared by the DWP and my employer. As I would also benefit from having the aids while not at work, I opted to make a voluntary contribution towards the cost. As I've never had any significant exposure to excess occupational or leisure noise I remain baffled as to what actually caused my hearing problems. I should add that my immediate colleagues, all IOSH people, have been most supportive and helpful. If hearing aids will enable the employee to hear the workplace fire alarm then the problem will be resolved for him. However, though this thread concerns one employee with a hearing disability, it can also serve as a prompt for readers/viewers of this forum to enquire whether appropriate arrangements exist in their premises to enable deaf and hearing impaired employees and visitors to be aware of emergency alarms. (e.g. visual alarms to complement audible alarms, staff awareness and training for staff who check occupancy of toilets and washrooms when the alarm operates)It's all relevant stuff under the Disability Discrimination Act, fire legislation and of course the good old Health & Safety at Work Act. Graham Bullough p.s. Kenneth - I've not encountered workplace vibrator alarms before, but presume they are devices which are worn near the skin. Are they like pagers which respond to a radio signal activated by the fire alarm system or are they triggered directly by the noise of the nearest alarm bell/siren?