Hearing loss toolkit
If you are reading this and have a hearing loss you are one of 18 million people in the UK.
Difficulty hearing can have a wide-ranging impact on life and wellbeing since it impacts communication, learning, access to information, human connection and safety.
This page contains some sources of information and support that may be helpful. It is broken down into the following sections: connection, equipment, technology, access to theatre and cinema and other resources.
Meeting others who share similar experiences to us can be incredibly beneficial to our overall health and wellbeing. It can also often offer us perspective, a feeling of not being alone with our challenges and give us ideas and solutions we may not have considered.
If you would like to meet others with a hearing loss one way would be to join a lip-reading class. This would offer an opportunity to build your visual skills in a supportive environment and meet with others who also have a hearing loss. There are lip-reading classes available online and face to face.
Lip-reading:
There are also courses on ‘Living well with hearing loss’ run at The City Lit in Covent Garden. These courses cover things like difficult listening situations, how to tell people you have a hearing loss and useful equipment.
Living well with hearing loss | Specialist learning course | London | City Lit
The role of equipment is to reduce or eliminate the barriers people with hearing loss face in accessing information and participating in life.
There are many different types of equipment designed to help. Neck loops or blue tooth devices can help cut down background noise while you are using a mobile phone. Wireless devices can enable you to hear the TV more clearly and at your own volume. Radio aids and streamers can help with background noise in noisy environments or at lectures.
If you’d like to find out more about what might be the most helpful equipment for your situation e.g., at home, in background noise or in a learning environment, you could try visiting a resource room where there is equipment to try, and someone experienced on hand to answer any questions.
Alternatively, there are online shops you could buy from (that often have customer support available to help you work out which equipment may be most useful given your model of hearing aids and needs).
Resource centres
London:
JDA, Julius Newman House, Woodside Park Road, North Finchley, London, N12 8RP
Name: Gabrielle Renée
Tel: 020 8446 0214
Email: info
Technology and Information Centre | JDA
Sensory teams
You may be able to get equipment for your home such as an amplified flashing doorbell or a flashing/vibrating smoke alarm from your local sensory team. Contact the sensory team in your borough or county.
To find out more about the type of equipment available for people with hearing loss and to buy online you could try the following websites:
Deaf Equipment | Connevans
Tel: 01737 247571
Email: askaquestion
FM Hearing Systems | Buy Online - Hearing Aid Accessories
Equipment for work
Access to Work can help you get or stay in work if you have a physical or mental health condition or disability. The idea is to reduce the barriers that hearing loss may cause at work. Access to Work may provide equipment, communication support for interviews and assistive software. Your place of work includes your home if you work there some or all the time.
Access to Work: factsheet for customers
Equipment for students
If you are a student, you may be able to get help and financial support to help with equipment with a Disabled Student’s Allowance (DSA). Equipment can make a great deal of difference in the classroom situation where there is often background noise or difficult acoustics.
DSAs do not depend on household income and do not need to be repaid. You can apply online if you are a full-time student in England and are applying for other support from Student Finance England at GOV.UK – Student finance for undergraduates
If you are not applying for any other financial support, you can download an application form at GOV.UK – Student finance forms
Full information is available at: GOV.UK – Help if you're a student with a learning difficulty, health problem or disability
There are many exciting developments in technology for people with hearing loss. From accessibility features embedded in iPhones, sound notifications on Android phones through to free captions on Zoom and the ability to adjust the speed of a show on Netflix.
The following apps may be useful to download and play around with:
- Relay UK (previously known as NGTS): using this app enables calls to be captioned by relay operators.
- Rogervoice: this free app captions calls via a computer voice recognition system. Active Wi-Fi or a 3G/4G data service is required, and calls are free between users of the app (calls to standard phones without the app require the purchase of a call plan).
- Live transcribe: this free speech- to- text accessibility app has a range of impressive features and can help provide captions in a range of situations. The 1st week trial is free and then it is £48.99 per year.
- TextHear – Personal: a voice recognition app from Geemarc. The Android version is free; the Apple version requires payment for blocks of minutes.
- Hearing Helper: For Apple devices only. This is completely free and operates by the pushing of a red button on the screen. It can be useful for short bursts of captions.
- Ava: Ava is a speech to text app that works well for groups. All involved in the conversation add Ava to their phones, join the conversation and speak. The text of what each person says along with their name shows up on everyone’s screens. Payment is needed past a certain number of minutes from the ‘host’.
- Otter Voice: good for meeting transcription or note taking or as a personal speech to text app. There is a charge.
- Chatable: this app uses the computing power of your phone to enhance processing of sound and reduce background noise. It works like a remote microphone, so you place the phone close to the speaker and listen via wired or Bluetooth headphones. Good for emergency situations if your hearing aid breaks down. You can also buy additional equipment so this can be used with certain hearing aids or cochlear implants. There is a free and a paid for version.
- Resolver: An online service to help you resolve complaints and send feedback to businesses and services and avoid call centres.
To find out more about what is currently available, to keep abreast of new developments and to read reviews of apps and different platforms check out:
Theatre and cinema can be particularly difficult for people with a hearing loss to enjoy. Stagetext lists all the captioned performances available. It is also worth contacting a theatre to find out if there is a loop system, designated seats or other equipment to help ensure people with hearing difficulties can access shows.
Stagetext
Telephone: 020 7377 0540
Email: enquiries
Captioned cinema shows are listed by Yourlocalcinema.com and you can sign up to receive personal local listings each week:
Yourlocalcinema
Telephone: 0845 056 824
Email: subtitles
- Hearing Link provides information, practical help and support to people living with hearing loss:
Hearing Link Services | Hearing Dogs for Deaf People - Ideas for Ears wants to make the UK a more hearing friendly nation and has suggestions and resources on their website:
Ideas for Ears - Free confidential and impartial information on a range of subjects relating to hearing loss:
RNID
Telephone: 0808 808 0123
Text: 0780 000 0360
Email: information@rnid.org.uk
If you have hearing loss, you may find these tips helpful when sharing your communication needs with others.
These three simple steps can help you to get started:
- Get my attention
Use simple gestures like waving to get my attention. - Face me
Please face me when you talk to me. Lots of people rely on lipreading to some degree to understand. - Be patient
Don’t be afraid to repeat or rephrase and try something different.
For more tips visit: Communication tips if you have hearing loss - RNID
Services
Page last updated: 18 February 2026
Review due: 31 January 2028