About

“Aural Diversity” describes the wide range of variations in hearing across individuals and populations. It focuses mainly on human hearing, including technological mediations, but does extend to animal hearing. To get a sense of the scope of the field, view the infographic.

Everybody hears differently. Each ear is uniquely shaped. Most people experience temporary changes in hearing daily. Hearing changes with age at varying rates after the teenage years. Factors such as environment, ethnicity, economic circumstances, culture and geography, all affect the way we hear.

Around 1.5 billion people worldwide (World Health Organization, World Report on Hearing, 2021) live with some degree of hearing loss, including age-related and non-age-related conditions. Of these, an estimated 430 million people require rehabilitation for disabling hearing loss. These differences include deafness, noise-related, genetic, ototoxic, traumatic, and disorder-based hearing loss. Auditory processing differences such as tinnitus, hyperacusis, and misophonia also involve heightened sensitivity rather than “loss.”

The Aural Diversity Project explores all these differences in hearing and their consequences in any setting that involves sound. It operates through:

  • Transdisciplinary research (working across and beyond disciplinary boundaries).
  • Experts by experience (foregrounding lived auditory experience).
  • Creative and reflective practice (developing artistic and scientific responses to perceptual difference).

History

Aural Diversity has evolved from a personal inquiry into hearing difference into an international research and creative network shaping policy, design, and cultural discourse.

The term auraldiversity was introduced by John Levack Drever at a Harvard conference in 2015, alongside the term auraltypical hearing, as part of a critical interrogation of normative listening assumptions. The concept emerged in dialogue with work on soundscape, vulnerable subgroups in environmental noise policy (WHO 1999), and critical perspectives on normative hearing within acoustics and disability discourse.

In 2018, Andrew Hugill founded the Aural Diversity Project, which consolidated, operationalised and significantly extended the concept through artistic practice, interdisciplinary research, public events and policy engagement.

The Project attracted early funding from GNResound Ltd. and Arts Council England, enabling the first concert at the Old Barn, Kelston Roundhill (July 2019), followed by a second concert and academic conference at the University of Leicester and the Attenborough Arts Centre (November 2019).

In 2020, a panel on Aural Diversity at the Royal Musical Association’s annual conference articulated key conceptual directions in the field.

In 2021, the Arts & Humanities Research Council funded a two-year national research network on Aural Diversity (AHRC grant reference: AH/V006649/1). The Network was led by Andrew Hugill as Principal Investigator, with a core academic team of John Levack Drever (Goldsmiths), Bill Davies (Salford), Alinka Greasley (Leeds), and the late David Baguley (Nottingham), later joined by Josh Reiss (QMUL).

From 2021–2023, the Network ran workshops, online events, and public engagement activities, producing a substantial body of interdisciplinary research. It formalised Aural Diversity as a national research agenda and established durable infrastructure for policy and industry engagement.

The network now includes over 300 members across music, acoustics, audiology, architecture, sound studies, design, clinical practice, and industry. It has become a focal point for interdisciplinary exchange on hearing difference in the UK and beyond.

In 2022, the book Aural Diversity, co-edited by Drever and Hugill, was published by Routledge.

That same year, an Aural Diversity panel at Internoise (International Congress on Noise Control Engineering) marked a significant moment of disciplinary dialogue. While the framework had been readily embraced within Arts and Humanities contexts, its introduction into acoustics provoked sustained debate. This exchange clarified assumptions embedded in standards and highlighted the need for broader conceptual models of hearing within environmental acoustics.

Aural Diversity has since been translated into professional design practice. Following engagement with the network, Arup’s Acoustics, Venues and Inclusive Environments teams developed an Aural Diversity Toolkit for architects, designers, and engineers.

The concept has informed regional policy development. The Welsh Government’s Noise and Soundscape Plan for Wales (2023–2028) includes a dedicated section referencing Aural Diversity.

A Defra-commissioned project examined the representativeness of the A-weighting curve, questioning long-standing assumptions that acoustic standards based on “otologically normal” listeners adequately reflect population diversity.

In 2024, £2.3 million was awarded by the Leverhulme Trust to establish LAURA (The Leverhulme Trust Aural Diversity Doctoral Research Hub) at the University of Salford, led by Bill Davies and John Levack Drever.

Today, the concept of Aural Diversity circulates across policy, industry, academia, and creative practice, often independently of the original project structures. It now functions as a broader conceptual lens within discussions of hearing, listening, and inclusion.