By optimising the acoustics you can provide a more inclusive environment as it helps all students and teachers to perform to the best of their abilities regardless of any hearing or listening difficulties.

In order to achieve this there are two fundamental requirements. Firstly you need a highly sound absorbing ceiling to bring the general sound levels down. Secondly, you need an additional low frequency absorber to help filter out unwanted and disturbing sounds and thereby improving both speech and listener comfort, particularly important for group work discussions. This combination greatly improves the overall speech balance and listener comfort as the spoken information can be heard and clearly understood. Lowering the sound levels minimises the "Lombard effect" (a person's spontaneous reaction to raise their voice which in turn increases the sound levels). This sound reduction positively influences behaviour, helping to enable a calm atmosphere in the classroom where students can focus and concentrate better.

In classrooms with high ceilings and lacking fixed wall furniture, you can reduce late horizontal sound reflections and further improve speech clarity by adding sound absorbing wall panels on two adjacent walls. Research indicates that lowering sound levels and improving acoustic directivity, supports a more flexible, diversified teaching-learning approach, facilitating group work when the acoustic conditions were previously unsuitable.