Let’s hear it for some quiet in restaurants

Sweeting’s restaurant in London’s Victoria. ‘We are asking restaurants to designate a day when they will turn off the music, turn up the lights and put tablecloths on their tables,’ writes Molly Berry about Lipreading Awareness Week. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

I’m delighted M&S has agreed to turn off the music in its stores (Report, 7 June). I am a lipreading tutor and one of the things my students always complain about is noisy restaurants; many of them have stopped eating out. For Lipreading Awareness Week, we are asking restaurants to designate a day when they will turn off the music, turn up the lights and put tablecloths on their tables. We will meet them and give their staff tips on how to communicate with the 10 million or so of us who have some hearing loss. This is a chance for restaurants to try out a quiet evening. To find out more about lipreading and managing hearing loss classes throughout the UK, and how to join in Lipreading Awareness Week, visit www.atlalipreading.org.uk.
Molly Berry
Marsworth, Buckinghamshire

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