St. Dunstan’s Basilica Parish was recently recognized by the City of Charlottetown with an Accessibility Award for implementing a major project, which resulted in making their services accessible to people with hearing impairments.
The historic St. Dunstan’s Basilica has been at the heart of the community in Charlottetown since 1919 with the roots of this Parish dating back to the early 1800s. Designated as a National Historic Site of Canada, it serves many parishioners and visitors to the city each day. St. Dunstan’s Basilica Parish endeavours to be a community of hospitality, extending welcome to all. The accessibility project that parish staff and volunteers undertook is a testament to this after recognizing the need of some form of hearing assistance for people with hearing impairments.
SoundFix, a sound design and installation business in Charlottetown, volunteered their expertise to create the plan for a hearing loop. Many years ago, there had been a hearing loop system installed in the Basilica, but it had not been operational for decades. After extensive investigation and design development, the new workplan included resurrecting the old existing system and integrating some modern components to make it fully operational again!
The hearing loop greatly increases the ability of users with T-coil equipped hearing aids to hear what is being said at the front of the church. Feedback from the users of the hearing loop has been extremely positive. Sometimes the users are even hearing sounds that other attendees cannot, such as the pouring of water and the turning of pages at the Altar. All of this, without increasing the sound of distractions around them!
