DeafSpace — Assessing Environments of Sound

July 27, 2023

DeafSpace — Assessing Environments of Sound

How can we hear better in this complex world?

Taking your environment into consideration and choosing how you interact within it can radically change your experience in the world. 

Gallaudet University, the Washington, DC school for deaf and hard of hearing students, has been redesigning space to maximize visual information and communication. Even as a person with moderate-severe hearing loss who does not sign, DeafSpace considerations make sense to me. Even if I had perfect hearing, these considerations would still make sense. They palpably demonstrate how modifying an environment can shift your awareness and foster engagement.

For example:

Classrooms are oriented in a semi-circle or U-shape, so everyone has a “front row seat to seeing.”

Wider corridors enable two people to view the whole body as they walk in parallel and sign a conversation.

The presence of mirrors offers cues as to what’s going on around/behind you. 

Glass doors and walls replace solid doors and walls for offices and classrooms: Even if the glass is opaque, you can know by the presence of shape and movement that someone is on the other side.

Ramps replace stairs, because stairs require more visual attention to the steps and compromise the visual cues needed for conversation.

Since there is such heavy reliance on visual cues, the architects pay extra attention to choices for color and light. Blues and greens contrast with most skin tones enough to reduce eyestrain, so those are the go-to colors for decor. Use of directional and diffused lighting also minimizes eyestrain by focusing attention and reducing glare.

The architects of DeafSpace developed a framework of principle concepts to drive their design for interactions, an approach that yielded a few Ah-ha! moments: It inspired me to evaluate circumstances from the perspective of “How can I more easily interact in any given situation?”

Proximity crucially impacts my ability to differentiate between what someone is saying to me and whatever other conversations or sounds may be going on around me. Humming heaters, fans, air conditioners and the like can mask the sounds I want to hear, so I try to distance myself from such noise generators. Even in a quiet environment, if the speaker is talking from another room, I may not really register what is said.

Walking side-by-side with a friend, I try to have them walk on my left, since that is my better ear. Walking or hiking single file, I can sometimes hear if the speaker is behind me with their voice directed toward me; I generally can’t hear what is said when they are in front, directing their voice away from me. In such cases I generally just have to say hold on, and remind them to face me. 

The principles of light and color can compromise or facilitate communication and connection. I have trouble understanding my husband when he talks in a low voice and the sun is beaming in behind him, putting his face in shadow. I can’t read his lips or his expression. But if we switch places, I can keep up, often without him having to talk any louder.

Acoustics determine how sound sources play out in an environment. In private settings you can usually situate yourself so that you maximize your hearing. In your own home, prudent use of sound-absorbent materials (carpets, curtains) to preempt and counteract random noise can yield a space where clarity of desired sound prevails. 

Yet there are so many situations where acoustics present a challenge: a large stone church or concrete lecture hall, a busy bar or restaurant with music that everyone is trying to talk over, a club where the music is so loud your ears hurt before you even go inside. In most of those instances, there may be something you can do to improve the odds of being able to hear in that space: In a lecture hall or church, sit up front, or position yourself near speakers if there is amplification. If there is a hearing loop and you have an activated telecoil, so much the better. If you must go to that busy bar or restaurant, find a corner table or booth as far from the bar and the kitchen as possible. I try to sit with my good ear toward the wall, to create a little corridor between my ear and my conversation partner. If I’m with a group, ideally I’ll sit at the end so I can see everyone, and hope to follow the gist of the conversation. If I’m in an environment where is it really challenging to hear, I might ask someone to be my hearing buddy and tip me off if there is a critical piece of info I am missing. As for the club that’s so loud your ears hurt before you even go inside. I just don’t go.

Granted, it isn’t easy navigating a complex world. In the throes of conversation, it may be asking a lot of yourself to step back and think, “how can I hear better in this circumstance?” But with practice, it becomes second nature.

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photo: frame from video “How Architecture Changes for the Deaf”