Applause outlawed to soothe student anxiety

Union bans traditional form of applause after concerns that it could trigger anxiety

Clapping has been replaced with “jazz hands” at a student union amid fears that the noise of applause could cause anxiety among some students. Whooping is also discouraged at Manchester University student union events on the basis that the loud noise may be a problem for those with sensory issues. The use of “jazz hands” – where students wave their hands in the air – is the British Sign Language expression for applause and is deemed to be a more inclusive gesture.

CLAPPING has been replaced with “jazz hands” at a student union amid fears that the noise of applause could trigger anxiety among some students.

Whooping is also discouraged at Manchester University student union events on the basis that the loud noise may be a problem for those with sensory issues.

The use of “jazz hands” – where students wave their hands in the air – is the British Sign Language expression for applause and is deemed a more inclusive gesture.

At the union’s first meeting of the year, Sara Khan, who is Manchester University’s liberation and access officer, argued that traditional applause was not sufficiently “accessible”. The union resolved to ban clapping in favour of “jazz hands”, and urged “student groups and societies to do the same”.

The students’ union also plans to make “BSL clapping” part of inclusion training for new students.

The union noted that “loud noises, including whooping and traditional applause, could pose an issue for students with disabilities, such as those with anxiety or sensory issues”. Jazz hands should be favoured at debates, panels and talks as well as at meetings of the student senate, it said.

“Jazz hands” were adopted by the National Union of Students in 2015 because clapping “triggers anxiety”. Delegates at last year’s NUS conference said students who whoop, cheer and clap should face “consequences”.

Audience members were repeatedly warned that they must cease whooping to express support for a speaker because it had a “serious impact” on the accessibility of the conference for disabled students.

Critics of the move say that such behaviour is typical of an over-sensitive “snowflake generation” of students who are quick to take offence. Last year it emerged that Oxford University’s equality and diversity unit had issued guidance to students advising them that those who avoided making eye contact with their peers could be guilty of racism.

The University of Glasgow started issuing “trigger warnings” for theology students studying the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, whereby students would be told in advance that they may see distressing images and would be given the opportunity to leave the room.

Earlier this year, If—, Rudyard Kipling’s poem of paternal advice, was scrubbed off a Manchester University building by university students who claimed he was a racist on the basis that the poem was a tribute to Leander Starr Jameson, the British colonial statesman who led the Jameson Raid against the South African Republic in 1895-6. The poem, which had been painted on the wall of the students’ union building by an artist, was removed by students in a bid to reclaim history on behalf of those who had been oppressed by “the likes of Kipling”.

A union spokesman said the hand gesture referred to as “jazz hands” was “designed to support those with disabilities and / or sensory conditions to participate in events”.

They added: “Students’ unions strive to make their events welcoming to all of their students by acknowledging their experiences and responding to their needs.”

A University of Manchester union spokesman said: “We hope this decision goes some way towards promoting a better way of doing politics, so that more people from all walks of life find it easier to participate in decision-making that will affect the way their Students’ Union is run.”

‘We hope this decision goes some way towards promoting a better way of doing politics’

In around 1440, Geoffrey the Grammarian, a friar from Lynn in Norfolk, wrote a children’s dictionary in Latin and English. His definition of “strepitus” was “clappe or grete dynne”. Geoffrey, who described himself as “reclusum” – a quiet, retiring sort who didn’t leave his cell without permission from a bishop – must have been particularly sensitive to dins great and small.

Geoffrey, were he writing books for the benefit of the young today, might have some sympathy with the students of the University of Manchester who have banned clapping at the students’ union.

Clapping and whooping, reported The Mancunion, will be replaced with “jazz hands” – the British Sign Language clapping equivalent. The union’s liberation and access officer argued that the noise of applause was triggering to those with anxiety or sensory issues and that a silent show of support was more inclusive.

The decision has been met with a roar – ready the ear mufflers! – of social media derision. Rarely has “snowflake” – falling silently, melting softly – seemed so appropriate. Mothers of children with autism and students suffering depression or anxiety rallied to the clapping cause. One Tweeter confessed her own struggles with mental health and then wrote of the “euphoria” of clapping and cheering. Three cheers to that.

If students can’t cope with a bit of happy-clappy in the union, what hope for their resilience in the face of finals, dissertation deadlines and the professor who holds an essay at arm’s length and sneers: “Have you considered journalism?”

I like the rituals of clapping. The moment of suspense – “And will you all now put your hands together for...” – as a star speaker strides from the wings. The nervy, cathartic round of applause for the Easyjet pilot who kisses the runway after flying through a fog and gale. The ecstatic togetherness of clapping, like a flock of starlings taking wing, as an audience gives a spontaneous standing ovation. (Spare us, though, from clapping after every high note, grand jeté and clash of cymbals. There is much to be said for delayed clapification.)

Few sounds are so wet and dispiriting as the polite one-handed clap with a champagne glass after a may-i-just-say-a-few-words at a cocktail party. If you’re going to clap, grip your glass between your knees and go for it.

The golfer Tiger Woods, celebrating his first title win in five years last month, was struck by the “fevered pitch” of the noise from the crowd. “I guess it’s different now,” said Woods, “because the art of clapping is gone, right? You can’t clap when you’ve got a cell phone in your hand! So people yell, and they were yelling. They’re going to be hoarse.”

Clapping is besieged on both sides: from the vulgar whoop at one extreme, and the mute jazz-hand waggle at the other.

The wolf-whistle, the “Brava, Brava!”, the “woohoo!” from the gods are really more about the applauder than the applauded. Enough from the soprano, now let’s hear from seat 25G. Clapping is an act of generosity. We give someone a big hand.

In Shakespeare’s Henry V, the king’s subjects wait on the shore to cheer Henry as he sails from Calais: “Men, Wives, and Boyes, Whose shouts and claps out-voyce the deep-mouth’d Sea.” Can you imagine Henry’s face arriving at a beach of loyal jazz hands? FOLLOW Laura Freeman on Twitter @Laurasfreeman; READ MORE at telegraph.co.uk/opinion