Why it was needed

1 in 7 people in the UK suffer from hearing impairment, so it is important to learn more about them and to improve our communication with deaf people so that they can integrate into our society. There are myths about deaf people that can affect their lives, and it is important to break through these misconceptions.

What's being done

Raise deaf awareness so that people are aware of what being deaf means and understand a bit more about their culture.

We hold weekly training sessions with our UCL student volunteers at the moment, where we cover some basic sign language and teach them some deaf awareness. We will be covering how to improve communication with people who suffer from hearing difficulties, what aids are available and generally some more information about the deaf community.

After some training, volunteers are given the opportunity to share what they have learnt in local schools, therefore raising deaf awareness into the community.

How it started

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More

Emma Joanne Wildings was the first person to set up the group in UCL in 2006, so the project is relatively new. It began as a small group of students who were interested in learning sign language and finding out more about the deaf community. The voluntary group gained attention and now it is being taught as a student selected component (SSC) for medical students at UCL, and other UCL students outside of medicine are being taught as volunteers as well. In the near future we will be raising deaf awareness further beyond UCL by sending trained volunteers into schools to share what they have learnt.