A woman who was told to remove her hearing aids while attending AberMusicFest in Aberystwyth Arts Centre last year because they were “interfering with the acoustics” has won a £4,000 discrimination claim against Aberystwyth University and vowed to make sure that it doesn’t happen again to others who are hard of hearing.

Susan Davies said she and other audience members were asked to turn down or remove the hearing aids three times on separate days of the event between 31 July and 3 August last year.

The 80-year-old said members of staff “shouted” at her and others, with the incidents leaving her “so upset” and feeling “humiliated.”

She said she has not returned to the arts centre, run by Aberystwyth University, since.

During a performance by Llyr Williams on 31 July, Ms Davies said a member of staff asked all hearing aid users to turn the volume down claiming it was “causing a sound reverberation in the ears of non hearing aid users” before “searching” for people with hearing aids in the audience.

Ms Davies said the incident was “intimidating” to her and others.

During a performance on 1 August, an audience member stood up and asked all audience members to turn down their hearing aids, while on 3 August a member of staff again told members of the audience with hearing aids to "turn the volume of our aids down or take them off”.

Following the incidents, Ms Davies approached Aberystwyth University to raise her concerns, but the university’s responses “did not do enough” to resolve the complaint, Ms Davies said.

After consulting with a solicitor, Ms Davies was prompted to submit a disability discrimination claim, and in March received a £4,000 settlement from the university which she said she then donated to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People.

Ms Davies told the Cambrian News that she has since written to all parties involved, as well as the chair of Arts Council Wales and local politicians in a bid to make sure that such incidents never happen again to those with hearing aids.

“I still cannot bring myself to visit the Arts Centre for events again,” Ms Davies told the Cambrian News.

“Asking audience members wearing hearing aids to turn them down and then turn them off is a breach of the Disability Discrimination Laws and was a public humiliation for all hearing impaired who were at those concerts.”

A spokesman for Aberystwyth University said: “The university aspires to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for the whole community.

“We take any complaint of discrimination extremely seriously and conducted a full investigation into the complaint made by Ms Davies.

“A settlement was paid to Ms Davies before any litigation was brought and it recognised the seriousness with which the university takes concerns of this nature.

“In addition, a full and sincere apology was provided to Ms Davies.

“We always seek to learn from any such concerns and have ensured that all necessary remedial action has been implemented.”