Deaf Awareness Week: 2-8 May 2022

News | Posted on Thursday 28 April 2022

There are 12 million people with hearing loss across the UK, that's around one in six.

Deaf Awareness Week aims to promote the positive aspects of deafness, promote social inclusion and raise awareness of the huge range of local organisations that support deaf people and their family and friends. The theme for 2022 is ‘deaf inclusion’.

When you meet a deaf person:

Make sure you have the person’s attention before you start speaking.
If possible, find a place to talk that has good lighting, away from noise and distractions.
Face the person while you are speaking, don’t turn away
Speak clearly without shouting and not too slowly, and use normal lip movements, facial expressions and gestures.
Use plain language and don’t waffle
Repeat yourself if necessary
Never say ‘It doesn’t matter’
If the person doesn’t understand you, don’t give up! Trying saying it in a different way.
Write it down or draw a picture Speak one at a time, don’t talk over each other
Keep your mouth visible: don’t look away while speaking or cover your mouth with your hands.
Smile and relax
Don’t speak too quickly or too slowly
Please use gestures
If the person uses a sign language interpreter, always remember to talk directly to the person you are communicating with, not the interpreter

Ways to support a member of staff in the workplace

Position the member of staff with hearing loss in a work area that has good acoustics and where they can see the rest of the room.
Adjust the layout of a meeting room and use good lighting to help everybody see each other clearly, which is important for lipreading.
If you play music in your workplace, either turn this off or down.
Provide meeting papers in advance as this will help the member of staff prepare so they focus on the speakers and/or discussions at the meeting.
For online meetings use the following facilities in Zoom and Google Chat: