Supporting the deaf community

Mike Hedges – MS for Swansea East

There are two distinct groups of people who are deaf: those who are born deaf and those who become deaf as they get older. For those who are born deaf, it comes as a huge shock to the family, who have probably never met a deaf child.

My knowledge of this subject comes from my sister who’s profoundly deaf. What that means is she cannot hear anything; the only way she can identify noise is the vibrations it causes.

What are the effects of being deaf? Try it for yourself. Try watching tv without subtitles and with the sound turned to mute. How much of a programme will you actually understand? Walk around with ear defenders or earplugs in so you cannot hear anything.

You miss the sound of nature, you miss hearing people speaking. A silent world is not a good world. Although most people have wished it could be less noisy on occasions, the reality is that we need noise. When we cross roads, we use our hearing as well as our eyes to avoid accidents.

Sound

What cyclists do when approaching a pedestrian from behind is they ring their bell. That’s of no use to somebody who is deaf. If you spot someone you know, you shout out to them.

This doesn’t work when people are deaf. If you are behind them, they will not know you are shouting. A call out to identify a possible danger will be ignored, not due to not caring, but due to not hearing.

There’s no way of identifying someone walking down the street who is deaf. They don’t look any different to you and me. If someone has substantial sight loss, then you will see the guide dog or the white stick.

If someone has mobility issues, you will see the wheelchair or the sticks they need. There is nothing similar for those who are deaf.

Understanding

There’s a need for service providers to meet the needs of the deaf community. The provision of British Sign Language communication support is necessary when somebody does not have a significant ability to communicate effectively as a direct result of their hearing loss. There are a lot of opportunities missed to understand what is being said.

Health is meant to provide people who can translate in sign language for medical appointments. It should; it does not always happen. This is important so that the person who is deaf gets a full understanding of what they are being told about their health.

People with hearing loss are severely disadvantaged compared to people who have unaffected hearing. I join deaf children and young people, along with Auditory Verbal UK, to challenge expectations of what deaf children can achieve, and call for increasing access to auditory verbal therapy.

Early and effective support is vital for all deaf children. Deaf children can achieve as long as they have the support they  need, including explanations using sign language.

How often do teachers talk to the board? Speaking as someone who used to lecture—far too often. When you’re talking to the board, then what is going to happen is that anybody who’s deaf doesn’t even know you’re talking.

Communication

When this happens without sign language interpreters, pupils do not know what has been said, or even if something has been said.

BSL is the preferred method of communication for many deaf people. There was a time in the 1960s and 1970s when deaf children were taught to lip-read and speak as the preferred option.

The British Sign Language dictionary was compiled for the British Deaf Association by the deaf studies research unit at the University of Edinburgh. It depicts over 1,800 common signs through pictures and diagrams, each sign accompanied by definition, explanation and usage.

British Sign Language is a useful skill to have to communicate effectively with deaf people. It consists of hand movements, hand shapes, as well as facial expressions and lip patterns to demonstrate what people want to say.

It is estimated that 151,000 people in the UK use British Sign Language and that 87,000 of those are deaf. I was extremely disappointed when Qualifications Wales decided not to progress with a general certificate of secondary education in sign language.

Rights

It is important that the disability rights taskforce specifically captures the issues and barriers that affect the lives of deaf people. It is very difficult being deaf. What those of us who are not deaf take for granted, deaf people cannot do.

We need to have a British Sign Language Act, because it is a language that people desperately need as a means of communication.

We need to get larger organisations, including Government, health and local government, to employ people who can confidently and correctly sign so that, when deaf people go in, they can sign and have somebody replying to them using sign.

It doesn’t need everybody in the organisation, I don’t think anybody would expect everybody in the organisation, to use sign language but there should be somebody there when you go who can converse using sign language so that the person who is deaf knows what’s happening.

That is what equality looks like.