Secrets of Safety Speakers : Whenever Possible Use A PA System

Secrets of Safety Speaker: Whenever Possible Use A PA System

This morning I was listening to other presentations prior to my closing keynote, “Would You Watch Out For My Safety?™”
One of the presenters was getting ready and announced he didn’t need a microphone. The person in charge of the meeting stepped in and said, “I want all our speakers to use a microphone.” Chris then explained the reason why.

In any group of people there are individuals with hearing impairments. They fall into a few categories. Some people know they have hearing loss and are unwilling to admit it to themselves or others. Some people have hearing loss and don’t even know it. These two groups of people are not going to tell you they can’t hear what you are saying.

Also when someone begins by asking, “Can everyone hear me?” it is asked during a moment when they have just been introduced and attention is at it’s greatest with the least interfering noises. I have even noticed that the person will often raise their voice to ask the question. That alters the response.

Another reason is that even a safety speaker with a loud booming voice has variations in volume. Most safety speakers move as they speak and as they face one part of the audience the volume drops off for the people they are not facing. Then when they turn the volume drops for the people they were just facing. This variable volume is a big problem for people with hearing impairments. Because of this they only hear part of what you are saying and it is fatiguing for them to try and stay focused. Ultimately they often give up and stop paying attention to what you have to say.

An Additional Observation
When people ask safety speakers a question from the audience the optimal setup would be to have them ask using a microphone. That is not often practical and their is a simple solution. When someone asks a question the safety speaker needs to repeat the question before giving an answer. This is important because some of the time the answer means more when you know what the question was.

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