How noisy is your restaurant? Can your customers hear each other over the din of the dining room?

“I can guarantee that people with hearing impairments don’t fully enjoy noisy restaurants.”

Daniel Fink, noise activist

The World Health Organisation estimates that around 466 million people worldwide have a hearing impairment. The CDC estimates that one quarter of American adults have trouble hearing. That is one quarter of restaurant patrons who have difficulty communicating with staff and each other.

Restaurant noise can climb up to more than 80 decibels. At these levels, speech is half intelligible and people have to shout to hear each other. These noise levels are also harmful to staff as prolonged exposure will place them at risk of hearing damage.

An auditory friendly business makes it easier for customers and staff to communicate comfortably.

An auditory friendly business is one that welcomes:

• people with hearing impairments
• people who are deaf
• people who use sign language to communicate
• people who do not speak English well
• people who are sensitive to loud sounds
• people who want to have comfortable conversations with their friends and families
• people who want to have business meetings in a friendly environment

• Echoes can make it hard to communicate and means people tend to raise their voices even more. This can happen in high ceiling venues or venues with lots of hard surfaces. Use decorations or soft materials on the walls, floors and ceiling to dampen harsh sounds and reduce echos. These can include carpet, curtains, tablecloths and wall panels.
• Cramped spaces can increase noise pollution (e.g. sharing tables with other patrons). Ensure there’s enough space and privacy for tables to talk to each other without competing with other parties.
• Make sure that the dining room is adequately lit so that people can lip read or use sign language.
• Provide access to private rooms, which can help with communicating in larger venues that have more difficulty regulating sound levels.

• Find out if any of your staff know Auslan or American Sign Language. If they do not, it could be something you include as a desired skill on job advertisements.
• Take your time, don’t rush communication. If a customer asks you to repeat something, make sure you’re communicating clearly.
• Slowing down, speaking louder and enunciating clearly is ok so as long as you do not exaggerate your speech.

• If you have a degustation, give customers the option to read through a written version of the menu instead of having the courses described by waitstaff.
• Make sure the restaurant is lit well enough so people can see each other. Some people read lips or use sign language to communicate. If they can’t see the other person clearly this can be difficult
• Try to minimise background noise, for instance, loud televisions or machinery. If you have an open kitchen, consider putting up glass or another type of screen so people can still see the delicious food being prepared, but the noise of pots and pans doesn’t disrupt the dining experience.
• If you have videos playing on a television screen, add closed captions so you can reduce the volume of the television and customers can still follow the dialogue or narration.
• Turn down the volume of your background music. If you are concerned that the music is inaudible, make sure that you have done everything you can to reduce other sources of ambient noise. Select a higher quality speaker system that will provide clarity and consistency of sound without creating uneven and harsh sounds.

• If you have social media videos, add captions to the videos so that people do not need to turn the sound on to understand the video. This is also an important step in expanding your social media reach as Instagram and Facebook play videos on mute by default.

• Tradeblock Cafe is a cafe in Melbourne, Australia, that serves coffee, pastries and light lunches. All the staff at Tradeblock Cafe are able to communicate in Australian Sign Language with customers.
• Mozzeria is a pizza restaurant in San Francisco that is fully deaf owned, and offers both text and ASL chat options on their website.

• Chefworks provides 8 helpful tips to reduce noise in your restaurant.
• This paper discusses the disability rights aspects of ambient noise, as well as links to further papers discussing sound levels of bars and restaurants in New York City.
• Soundprint is an app that crowd sources lists of venues that are sufficiently quiet for comfortable dining. Soundprint can also help connect you to acoustic consultants to help you manage the sound levels in your venue.
• Deaf Society NSW offers beginners courses for learning Auslan. This is applicable to Australia only, and be aware that there are dialect differences between the states.
• Sign Language 101 offers video lessons for learning American Sign Language. This is applicable to the United States of America only, and be aware that there are dialect differences between the states.
• Read more about soundproofing on Wikipedia
• Test the decibel level of your business using SoundPrint
• See Hear Communication Matters provides helpful ideas on how to caption your videos with minimal effort.