An employee has recently been diagnosed with a hearing disability. Part of her role is a weekly teleconference with her 6 colleagues. We are a national organisation. Has anyone had any experience of what reasonable adjustments we could make. I am awaiting an Access to Work assessment however im not sure if this would be covered.

There is a system now whereby you can make phone calls through the PC and use a webcam/speaker. I'll write the name but it may get taken off by the mods. skype Its free to download and use. By the way I have nothing to do with the system.

Poppy - Do liaise with the employee involved. Though I guess you are probably doing so, I write this as general advice for others reading this because it seems that some employers make assumptions about disabilities and don't actually talk to the employees involved. As someone whose hearing in both ears deteriorated a few years ago I went through the Government/DWP "Access to Work" process and found it helpful. Among other things I got help with getting high quality digital hearing aids which helped with hearing while at work. Although the scheme paid most of the cost, my employer also contributed. I also thought it appropriate to make a contribution because I would benefit from the aids when not at work. Most if not all hearing aids have a function which allows users to receive signals via induction loop systems where provided in meeting rooms and other locations such as theatres. Such hearing aids have a button by which wearers can set them to what is known as the "T" setting. I think the "T" stands for 'telephone coil' as the handsets of some desk telephone sets incorporate a small induction coil. I've found the T setting very effective because speech heard through it is very clear and does not compete with background noise and being reduced through physically travelling to my hearing aids over a distance. Unfortunately, it seems that digital telephones, including desk models and mobiles, tend not to have induction coils. Thus, when my employer changed to digital desk phones ( probably of American design) several years ago, I suddenly lost the benefit of a desk phone (made for BT I think) with an induction coil. In response to this my employer provided me with a lightweight headset (two earpieces and a microphone) which works moderately well against background noise in an open plan office. However, putting the headset on and off is a bit of a faffle at times compared with the previous ease of switching just one of my hearing aids to "T" each time I lifted a handset to it. If anyone knows of any digital desk phones or mobiles which DO have induction coils, please could they share brief information on this forum for the benefit of employers and employees dealing with such matters? Also, having mentioned induction loop hearing systems permanently or temporarily installed in rooms, please don't confuse them with infra-red hearing systems. These convert audio signals into infra-red signals which are transmitted to portable "necklace" type devices which have to be provided for and worn by persons with hearing aids. The devices convert the infra-red signals into very localised induction type signals which are picked up by wearers with their hearing aids set to "T". In my experience infra-red systems have various disadvantages. These stem partly from the fact that the infra-red signals behave like light and are easily obstructed by anything which comes between an infra-red transmitter and the small part of the necklace device which receives such signals. Therefore, for anyone who has any involvement with hearing systems in buildings, please go for induction loop type systems. The only apparent advantage of infra-red systems s that they help to maintain confidentiality when needed, as the signal from an induction loop system in some cases can travel travel or spill outside the physical boundary of its wire or cable loop and the room containing it. Even so, it would probably be worth doing a trial with a localised induction loop system to check if "spillage" does occur and to what degree. However, as I'm no expert on this and the above matters, it would be interesting to know what others think.