We hear you, now you can hear us!
At RLE Law we constantly strive to improve our clients’ experience and make our services as accessible as possible. During the Pandemic we were able to demonstrate this by being able to quickly move our services to remote means, enabling continuity of service.
The nature of the services we offer also means we deal with individuals on a daily basis who are vulnerable and/or have a disability. These challenges, without measures in place, can often greatly hinder a person’s ability to fully engage in a legal process and this is particularly true for our clients who are deaf or have a hearing impairment.
Hearing loss impacts one-sixth of the population and a third of over sixty-five year olds. For individuals with hearing loss, they may find it difficult to hear spoken words in areas where there is ambient noise or poor room acoustics. This can also create feelings of isolation. A hearing loop makes it easier to hear by reducing background noise so will allow our clients to hear better during meetings.
Managing Director Emma Hardwidge commented: ‘A large percentage of our clients are over 50 and we know that as you get older you are more likely to suffer a hearing impairment. Hearing and the ability to hear is critical to our service as a client needs to hear and understand the advice we give them. When our Legal Executive Samantha Abbott suggested we install a Hearing Loop we jumped at the idea’.
Since its installation, the feedback has been excellent and we are proud to have made our service more accessible for people with hearing impairments. The portable loop can be used in our meeting rooms in both our Bridgend and Treorchy offices. This will enable our team to not only improve our communication skills but also break down barriers to legal services.
There are over 10 million people living in the UK who have some form of hearing loss with 800,000.00 considered severely or profoundly deaf so we feel that our clients are better served and we can demonstrate our commitment to Equality and Diversity .