This year, Deaf Awareness Week is taking place between the 6th and the 12th of May.
In this blog, we’re taking a closer look at this year’s theme, what we mean by deaf awareness, and how you can get involved in Deaf Awareness Week 2024.
What Is Deaf Awareness Week?
Deaf Awareness Week was founded by the UK Council on Deafness and is held every year in May.
It’s a time to recognise and raise awareness of the unique needs of the D/deaf community and the challenges they face. It’s also a time to celebrate the achievements of deaf people and highlight ongoing campaigns to improve the lives of deaf people in the UK.
During Deaf Awareness Week, charities and organisations such as the Royal National Institute For Deaf People (RNID) and the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) aim to raise awareness and get people involved, through engaging online content and events.
Why Do We Need Deaf Awareness Week?
Deafness is far more prevalent than you might think. It’s estimated that 1 in 5 adults in the UK are deaf, having hearing loss or tinnitus, which is around 12 million people in total!
There are also over 50,000 deaf children in the UK, with three babies born deaf every single day. The majority of these children are born to hearing parents with little or no experience of deafness.
Despite this, deaf people still face many barriers to communication and don’t always have the same access to health, education, work and leisure opportunities as hearing people.
Deaf Awareness Week can help us to recognise and address these inequalities and begin breaking down barriers for deaf people in society.
The Communication Needs of Deaf People
Incredible technological advances in recent decades mean that there is now a vast array of hearing aids and implants available. However, for most deaf people, hearing aids and devices won’t fully restore hearing, though they can enhance it and vastly improve quality of life in many cases.
As such, deaf people have a range of communication needs and styles, including:
- Hearing aids and implants, such as cochlear implants and bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHAs).
- Technology such as a Hearing Loop/Induction Loop and Closed Captioning.
- British Sign Language (BSL) and other global sign languages, such as American Sign Language (ASL) and Chinese Sign Language (CSL/ZGS).
- Makaton – a simplified signing communication method designed to be used by children and adults with disabilities or learning difficulties.
- Verbal speech.
- The written word.
- Lip-reading.
According to The British Sign Language (BSL) Report 2022, 151,000 people in the UK use BSL, and the 2021 Census found that BSL was the main language for 22,000 people aged three or above in England and Wales.
Deaf Awareness Week is an excellent opportunity to highlight the importance of communication in the deaf community and address barriers to it, as well as banish harmful stereotypes.
A recent breakthrough in improving access to communication for deaf children and young people comes in the form of the NDCS’s Right to Sign campaign. Launched in 2017, the campaign called for BSL to be offered as a GCSE in UK secondary schools and as a result of tireless campaigning and raising awareness, the curriculum for the GCSE in British Sign Language is due to be finalised by September 2025.
While this is an incredible achievement that will hopefully improve communication and opportunities for deaf young people, it’s clear that more still needs to be done to highlight the needs of the deaf community, and that’s where awareness days and events such as Deaf Awareness Week come in.
The Theme of Deaf Awareness Week 2024
Each year, Deaf Awareness Week has a specific theme, and in 2024, that theme is ‘Love & Trust.’ The UK Council on Deafness wants to encourage people to:
“open their hearts, bridge the communication gap, and embrace the beauty of diversity within the Deaf community.”
(UK Council on Deafness, 2024)
Get Involved in Deaf Awareness Week
There are many ways you can get involved in Deaf Awareness Week. Here are just a few suggestions:
- Learn BSL – whether it’s a few simple phrases or enrolling on a course.
- Explore ways of making your workplace more deaf-friendly, for example, by undertaking deaf awareness training, offering closed-captioning for video conferencing or installing an induction loop on your premises.
- Share Deaf Awareness Week 2024 resources on social media, using the hashtag #DeafAwarenessWeek
- Be sure to caption your reels or videos on social media to make them accessible to deaf viewers.
- Fundraise for your favourite deaf charity.
- Take part in local events- or host your own!
Get In Touch
At BAHA Accessories, we know how important it is to highlight the specific needs and challenges of the deaf community, that’s why we fully support and embrace Deaf Awareness Week.
You’ll find lots of useful information, tips and advice over on our blog. If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’ll do our best to help.
We’re also more than happy to talk you through our various products and designs and how they work to make sure that they’re the right choice for you. You can contact us by phone on 07432 620644 or drop us an email at sales@bahaaccessoriesuk.com. Alternatively, you can fill out our online contact form and we’ll get back to you ASAP.
We look forward to hearing from you!