Comfort acustico e accessibilità a scuola

Noise pollution is one of the most disturbing environmental factors, which may affect health and cognitive activities. In school environment, acoustic quality is a paramount requirement for successful educational activities; in this specific context, acoustics depend on both incoming noise from outside and internal reverberation time, both of which can directly impact the speech intelligibility. Even though national legislation and standards have acknowledged the importance of good acoustic quality within places of learning, the Italian school building stock is mainly composed of old buildings, often born with a different intended use, which have inadequate reverberation times. High reverberation times cause discomfort to all users, teachers, and pupils, especially in subjects with language or learning deficits or more or less severe hearing impairments. For these individuals, poor acoustics is a real perceptual barrier, limiting the accessibility of school spaces. In this context, the Department of Architecture of Florence in collaboration with the Municipality of Florence and the IOPARLO Association (a group of families with children with hearing impairments) has carried out many measurements within classrooms of primary and secondary schools, to design and implement acoustic correction interventions. Parents of hearing-impaired pupils have always appreciated the results achieved within school environments, which have greatly improved the listening conditions of their children.