Recent work indicates that the stochastic resonance phenomenon (SR) can have a strong signature in the neutron scattering cross section. Here we consider neutron scattering by a sample containing a random distribution of bistable scattering centres. The robustness of the stochastic resonance signal is tested by performing suitable configurational averages over the potential parameters. By showing that the resonant line is not significantly weakened by the randomness, our results suggest that SR should be observable in a real glass. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.