Sensory Borrow Bags are lovely thought but ...
Piped music is something
I feel very strongly about due to Ferretfingers’ problems with sensory overload
and music in particular.
I
am not alone, there is an organisation called Pipedown which campaigns against
piped music.
By
law organisations are meant to give ‘reasonable adjustments’ for people with
disabilities.
One would think a request
to turn the music off would be met with understanding, especially with a young
person standing before them, visibly agitated, and saying loudly “the lady will
turn the music off, please.”
However
I’ve lost count of the times we’ve been met with “Oh we can’t do that” and/or “we
can turn it down a bit” or “we can put you in a corner where there isn’t a
speaker”.
The
last is a speciality of restaurants and, guess what, there is never a corner
that the music doesn’t reach. More than
once I’ve been told “Oh we have to have it for the ambiance”; silly me I
thought people went to restaurants to eat and concerts for the music.
And you'd be amazed at the number of waiting staff who have relatives with autism who aren't bothered by music at all, so what's his/our problem.
We
have walked out of, or not walked into, numerous eating places because of this.
And
left a large tip in those places, usually independents, kind enough to
understand and turn it off.
In
Curry’s Silverlink last year I was countered with “he’s got his ear-defenders”
and “we have a quiet hour”.
From
Facebook Archives
14
July 2023 at 14.08
They
could save themselves the cost of ear defenders by simply turning the piped
music off.
That would also help the elderly and hard of hearing.
It would also
save the cost of the Performing Rights Society licence to play recorded music
(they organise the royalties).
Aldi, Lidl and other shops still manage to
provide a decent service and make a profit without subjecting customers to some
manager’s choice of muzak.
Mrs Melodeon Well said Ben.
Drummerman Muzak very
annoying, although Tesco in Berwick has a quiet hour every morning when they
turn it off, have less strident announcements and “turn down the beeps on the
tills”.
Bentonbag Wonderful. So
people with, or caring for and accompanied by those with, sensory issues have
an hour a day in which to do their shopping.
I wonder how people would react if they decided to put wheelchair ramps
in for an hour a day.
Drummerman Don’t know how long it will last for, either. The Evesham
branch used to have a “slow” till where the cashier was encouraged to chat and
put things through at a comfortable pace: apparently this was a trial- seems to
have been replaced by do-it-yourself checkouts.
Sandy Co-ops are
the worst and the Morrisons in leek. They
play the music so loud I think I should be wearing a John Travolta spangly
suit.
Bentonbag Now that I
would like to see...
Bess Cavalier As you say,
other supermarkets manage without the muzzak - they are pretty noisy places
anyway and really only the cashier needs to hear the beep on a till as an item
goes through.
Bentonbag
In Canada, back in the 1980s, we were in a supermarket where instead of
a beeb there was a computerised voice saying the item and the cost. Much more
useful to all concerned that a beep, and (probably) not that hard to achieve
with barcodes and IT.
Bess
Cavalier I think that would be particularly useful for someone with visual
impairment.
Mrs Westie It's not even 'music ' ,it’s just someone wailing and boom boom.x
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