BB77 is meant to be guidance for school design edited by the British government. It addresses the inclusive aspects of school facilities, meaning their capacity to accommodate pupils with special needs.
The draft is a 293 page document, applying to all schools whether “special” or not.
Facts and figures
– pupils are regarded as having hearing impairment if they require hearing aids, adaptations to their environment and/or particular teaching strategies in order to access the concepts and language of the curriculum.
– 40% of pupils with a hearing impairment also have an additional disability or learning difficulty.
– most pupils with hearing impairment are included in mainstream schools.
Acoustic design guidelines provided by BB77
– “A high-quality acoustic environment should be a priority, with good-quality room acoustics for speech intelligibility and sound insulation to ensure low background noise.“
– “Avoid noise interference from highly reflective or highly reverberant surfaces, such as wood-block floors, hard-plastered walls, ceramic tiling or glass blocks.”
– “Sound absorbers should be used in ceilings, upper part of walls and flooring. Walls should be of high mass to reduce noise transfer (…) with sound absorbent finish on their upper part.”
– “A specialist consultant will be needed to advise on the material, shape and construction of the ceiling for music and performance spaces.”
Download the draft >>
Final version of BB77 will be available after edition of results from public consultation at www.teachernet.gov.uk/acoustics
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