Hearing Impairments at Work: What Business Analysts Need to Know

What is it like to work as a business analyst with a hearing impairment?

In this episode of BA Brew, Kerry is joined by Abi and Mike, who share their personal experiences of hearing impairments and how it has affected their working lives.

For business analysts, meetings, workshops, stakeholder conversations and collaborative sessions are a fundamental part of the job. But hearing impairments can make those situations significantly more challenging.

Abi and Mike discuss:

• The different ways hearing impairments can affect people

• The unexpected importance of lip reading

• Following conversations in busy meetings and workshops

• Why background noise can create a “wall of noise”

• The additional concentration and fatigue hearing loss can cause

• How hearing loss can affect confidence at work

• Hearing aids and assistive technology

• Using captions, transcription and AI tools

• The UK Government's Access to Work scheme

• Reasonable adjustments for training and examinations

• How colleagues and facilitators can make meetings more accessible

Abi also shares how Access to Work (https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work) helped her obtain assistive technology that sends voices directly to her hearing aids, helping her participate more confidently in collaborative environments.

And their advice isn't only for people experiencing hearing impairments. Mike encourages anyone who can advocate for people with accessibility needs to “step up and support other people.”

Find out more about AssistKD and business analysis: assistkd.com

📩 Have an idea for a future BA Brew? Contact babrew@assistkd.com

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