The Sound of Yoga Spaces: Accessibility for Hard-of-Hearing Student
Summary
Many yoga classes and spaces are not accessible to hard-of-hearing student. Rooms are echo-y, teachers are speaking softly and quickly, music is loud and constant and competing with the teacher's voice.
Many yoga classes and spaces are not accessible to hard-of-hearing student. Rooms are echo-y, teachers are speaking softly and quickly, music is loud and constant and competing with the teacher’s voice.
Given that 3.6 percent of U.S. survey respondents reported being deaf or as having “serious difficulty hearing.”, and that more than 1.5 billion people worldwide are deaf or hard-of-hearing in one or both ears, this lack of attention to yoga students’ listening and hearing needs is a big deal.
Thee statistics don’t even account for people with auditory processing impairments.
And yet: Yoga studio owners and yoga teachers primarily attend to making yoga spaces visually pleasing and peaceful, making sure there are clear sight-lines to the teacher.
The attention to sensory access usually stops there.
The impacts of bad acoustics and background noise are dismissed as unfortunate irritations, not as the barriers they are for so many people.
In my 20 years of going to in-person and live online yoga classes, I’ve never heard a yoga teacher ask if people can hear them – except if they’re checking that Zoom is working or that their mic is on.
Bottom Line: You most likely have students at your workshops or classes who strain to hear. You might even have had a hard-of-hearing student who came to your class once and never came back because of auditory barriers. Given how prevalent hearing difficulty is, a hearing-friendly set-up should be an automatic part of designing your yoga spaces and classes.
In this post I’m offering a glimpse into what this reality actually looks like, what affects the hearing and listening needs of yoga students and workshop participants. Next week I’ll dig a little deeper into specific questions to consider and changes to make.
Here are some things to consider as you bring hearing-friendliness into your yoga space.
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What does your space sound like?
Some of the most popular yoga studios I’ve been in have been vast, wide open spaces. They have been admired for their spaciousness and for being aesthetically appealing.
All those high ceilings and hard surfaces? They look great.
But, high ceilings and hard surfaces (bare floors, walls with few wall hangings and no acoustic tiles, minimal furniture) make a perfect echo chamber for your voice.
That big resonant sound you hear when you project your voice throughout the room? It can make listening to and understanding what you say exhausting for students who are hard-of-hearing to any degree, or students who have an auditory processing disorder or other cognitive impairment.
These echoes might help with your volume, but they usually don’t do good things for the clarity. Clarity is just as important as volume, especially if you’re playing music, running a fan or air filter, or wearing a mask.
Same goes if you’re teaching virtually. What kind of audio equipment are you using? How does your voice sound over a meeting or streaming platform?
One of my teachers recently switched from an in-ear headset with built-in microphones to a free-standing mic. She was explaining that the ear-buds kept falling out of her ears so she was trying something different. We can still hear her voice clearly, and we can also hear it bouncing off all the hard surfaces in her space.
I joked that we should take up a collection to decorate her walls (it’s her home office and practice space) with tapestries.
But I wasn’t really joking. That extra room noise makes hearing and listening harder work.
And I’m not the only hard-of-hearing student who shared that this change made things harder.
None of my students have trouble hearing. Do I still need to think about this?
In a word: yes.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to give feedback to studios that their space was too echo-y, and how many times I didn’t give that feedback; I thought it was a “me” problem. Because we live, work, and are entertained in spaces that don’t prioritize hearing-healthy acoustics and an easy listening experience many people won’t speak up and will take the responsibility for being uncomfortable or using extra energy to listen on themselves.
A few months ago I took part in an online conversation on using microphones at conferences and meetings. One person put it like this: “If the presenter asks if everyone can hear them that’s only going to work for people who heard the question in the first place.”
Yes, it is students’ responsibility to speak up if they have a need that isn’t being met.
But, consider this:
The average length of time people wait between onset of hearing difficulties and seeking evaluation and help? Seven years.
So, we have potentially large numbers of people who don’t know for sure they have an impairment to their hearing, are in denial, don’t have access to audiological services, or aren’t speaking up out of embarrassment.
Remember, we’re talking about potentially large numbers of people, and the percentages go up if you’re teaching the 60-and-older crowd.
In creating hearing-friendly yoga spaces, you are addressing the needs of all the people in the room who can’t hear you ask if their needs are being met.
Over the next few weeks I’ll unpack different aspects of creating hearing-friendly yoga spaces. Next week we’ll look at listening fatigue, music, and microphone use.