A manager sits down with an employee who has sight loss or hearing loss and asks a perfectly reasonable question: what do you need from us? The answer is often some version of “I’m fine” or “I’m not sure”. It is tempting to take that at face value and move on. In practice, it is one of the most common reasons adjustments never happen.
Living with a condition does not make someone an expert in workplace adjustments. People with sight or hearing loss know their own experience better than anyone. That is not the same as knowing which lighting, software settings, meeting practices or equipment could change a working day, because many have never seen those options, let alone been asked about them.
Why “I’m fine” is not the end of the conversation
There are several honest reasons why an employee may not be able to say what would help.
They have adapted. Over months or years, people build workarounds: sitting nearer the front, asking a colleague to repeat things, enlarging text by squinting closer, memorising a route, saving energy by avoiding certain meetings. The workaround becomes so familiar that the cost of it is invisible, even to them.
They have only been told about the condition. Clinic appointments focus on the eye or the ear, on treatment, monitoring and perhaps a hearing aid. Few people leave a clinic with advice on what to change at their desk, in a meeting room or on a video call.
They do not know what exists. Many of the most useful changes are unfamiliar to people who have not needed them: how a room’s acoustics shape speech, how glare and contrast affect reading, what built-in features a computer already has, how a meeting can be run so everyone can follow it.
The need changes. A new job, a new building, hybrid working, a change of software or a change in the condition itself can alter what is needed. What worked in the old role may not work now.
Some fear the consequences. Some employees understate difficulty because they worry about being seen as less capable, or about drawing attention to themselves. Saying “I’m fine” can be self-protection rather than information.
What the evidence suggests
Research on this specific point is limited and dated. The most relevant UK source found is a 2013 survey by the charity then known as Action on Hearing Loss, now RNID, published in its Hidden Disadvantage report. It surveyed 442 people with hearing loss, of whom about 180 were working. Of all respondents, 64 per cent (217 of 337 who answered) said not knowing where to access support or advice was a barrier to employment. Among those in work, 46 per cent were unaware of Access to Work. The report itself notes that some figures rest on small numbers and should be read cautiously, and that it could not tell whether people were unaware of adjustments or simply did not think they would help.
This is a 2013 survey of hearing loss only, and no comparable recent figures for sight loss were identified in this research. It is best read as an indication of the problem, not a current measure of it.
What a workplace assessment may find that the employee did not mention
The table below shows the kind of gap that appears between what someone says and what a specialist assessment may identify. These are illustrations, not a checklist, and every person’s situation is different.
| What the employee may say | What may sit behind it | What an assessment may explore |
|---|---|---|
| “I manage fine on screen.” | Reading at close range or with raised effort, with headaches or errors late in the day. | Text size, contrast, lighting and glare, and the built-in or specialist software features that may reduce effort. |
| “I just ask people to repeat things.” | Strain and fatigue from listening hard, with missed detail in group discussion. | Meeting room acoustics, seating position, how meetings are run, and communication support that may reduce listening effort. |
| “I don’t really use video calls.” | Difficulty following speech without clear faces, with background noise or poor audio. | Call set-up, captioning options, audio quality and camera positioning. |
| “I know my way around.” | Reliance on a fixed route, which can break down when furniture, lighting or layout changes. | Lighting, contrast on steps and doors, layout changes and what happens in an emergency. |
| “It’s only a problem when I’m tired.” | Compensation that works until energy runs out, with variation across the day. | Workload pattern, breaks, task order and where fatigue arises in the working day. |
What This Means for Occupational Health, HR and Case Managers
The practical lesson is that self-report is a starting point, not a conclusion. A few approaches tend to work better than asking people to name solutions.
Ask about tasks, not remedies. “Which tasks take longer than they should, tire you out or lead to mistakes?” is easier to answer than “What adjustments do you need?” It gives you the problem, and the solution can be worked out separately.
Treat “nothing needed” as provisional. Record it, but plan to revisit it after a change of role, building, equipment or working pattern, and when the condition changes.
Look at the environment as well as the person. Lighting, acoustics, layout, meeting practices and software configuration are all part of the picture, and none of them can be assessed from a conversation alone.
Use specialist input where the picture is unclear. A workplace assessment for sight or hearing loss looks at the person, the job and the workplace together, and a good report should set out the barriers identified, the adjustments suggested and why each may help. It should not draw conclusions about capability or fitness for work.
Keep the employee in the loop. The aim is a shared understanding, not a prescription handed down. Adjustments tend to last when the person has seen them, tried them and had a say.
Hints and tips for employees
If you are not sure what would help, you are in good company. It can be useful to keep a short note for a week or two of the points in your day when things become harder, slower or more tiring, such as particular meetings, screens, rooms or times of day. Describing the situation is enough. You do not need to propose the answer. If you are offered an assessment, it is not a test of you. It is a way of finding out what may make work easier.
Legal Rights and Support
Under the Equality Act 2010, an employer must make reasonable adjustments where a disabled person would otherwise be at a substantial disadvantage. The duty to make reasonable adjustments does not apply if the employer does not know, and could not reasonably be expected to know, that the person has a disability and is likely to be placed at that disadvantage (Schedule 8, paragraph 20). The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Employment Statutory Code of Practice says, at paragraph 5.15, that an employer must do all they can reasonably be expected to do to find out if a worker has a disability. That wording concerns knowing about the disability, not knowing which adjustments are needed, but it points in the same direction: the employer is expected to take active steps, not to wait for the employee to supply a complete answer.
Acas guidance says adjustments are specific to the individual and that employers should talk with the person and not make assumptions. GOV.UK’s Access to Work page, updated on 27 October 2026, states that Access to Work will not pay for reasonable adjustments, which are the employer’s duty, although the support it provides can come on top of them. Access to Work grants do not have to be repaid, and decisions can take months.
Whether the Equality Act definition is met for a particular person, and what is reasonable, depends on the circumstances. This article is general information rather than legal advice.
Summary
Asking an employee to name the adjustments they need is a little like asking a passenger to design the car. The question that works is simpler: where does the work get harder than it should? From there, the answers can be found by looking at the person, the job and the workplace together, and revisited as things change.
Watch the short film
This short film follows one person with hearing loss. Asked by their manager what they needed, they said they were fine, because they were used to sitting at the front, asking people to repeat things and going home exhausted. A workplace assessment then looked at their job, their meeting room and their day. It led to a better place to sit, captions on calls and meetings run so they could follow. The film lasts 50 seconds.
Frequently Asked Questions
Employees are encouraged to describe the difficulties they face, but the duty to make reasonable adjustments sits with the employer. Many employees cannot name the right adjustment because they have not seen the options, so a conversation, and often specialist input, works better than expecting a ready-made answer.
Asking about tasks tends to help more than asking about solutions: which tasks take longer, cause fatigue or lead to errors. It is also worth saying that the offer stays open and will be revisited if the role, equipment or condition changes.
That depends on the circumstances. Adjustments can often be considered based on how the person is affected at work, and a workplace assessment can describe the barriers and options. Whether the Equality Act definition is met is a separate question that depends on the individual case.
No. GOV.UK states that Access to Work will not pay for reasonable adjustments, which are the employer's duty. Its support can come in addition to them.
If you or someone in your team has sight loss or hearing loss and would like expert, tailored support to stay productive and comfortable at work, you can arrange a workplace assessment with us.
Sources
Equality Act 2010, Schedule 8, paragraph 20 (lack of knowledge of disability): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/schedule/8/paragraph/20/enacted
Equality and Human Rights Commission, Employment Statutory Code of Practice (paragraphs 5.13 to 5.15 and 6.3 to 6.5): https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/34112/1/employercode.pdf
Acas, Reasonable adjustments at work: https://www.acas.org.uk/node/238
GOV.UK, Access to Work: https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work
Action on Hearing Loss (now RNID), Hidden Disadvantage, 2013 survey: https://rnid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Hidden-Disadvantage-full-report.pdf