Charity calls for Scottish hotels to accommodate for deaf guests

Around one-in-six people are now legally deaf or hard-of-hearing, and with Scottish tourism booming the charity wants hotels to take notice.

Their study found that only 24 per cent of the 268 hotels in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Fort William, Glasgow, Perth and Stirling said that they had a hearing loop at their hotel’s reception to aid those with hearing problems.

71 per cent of the hotels did not have specialist equipment to help their deaf guests but instead had a list of guests who needed to be woken up if there was an emergency.

The director of Action of Hearing Loss Scotland, Delia Henry, said that she wants visual and sensory aids including vibrating and flashing alarms installed in hotels to increase the safety of deaf guests.

“We want hotels across Scotland to equip their reception desks to be more accessible for guests who are deaf or have hearing loss and ensure that vibrating and flashing alarms are available so that they are not unnecessarily solely dependent on the reactions of staff during emergency situations.

 “People who are deaf or hard of hearing have the legal right to enjoy the same level of service as other guests and will be disappointed to see that more work needs to be done by so many hotels to meet their communication needs.”