Thumbs Up: Life and Deaf’s Sign Good Morning campaign!

On the morning of 8^th July 2013 an Olympian, a Hollywood actress, a London fire fighter, several deaf youngsters, a famous puppet, a nurse, deaf and hearing twin sisters, an officer of the Order of the British Empire and the Gruffalo will join with mystery celebrities to warmly wish ‘Good morning’ to the 2.7 million passengers using the London Transport network.

Travellers passing through London Bridge, Charing Cross, Euston, Victoria and Paddington underground stations will see these colourful and vibrant greetings on CBS digital screens as they travel up and down the escalators. They will be greeted in a beautiful but all too rarely seen language, British Sign Language. This coverage will continue for seven full days.

The Life & Deaf Association have launched the Sign Good Morning campaign asking people up and down the British Isles to learn to sign ‘Good morning’ and to thereby include deaf people in their communities.

Accomplished celebrities, including Sir Ian McKellen, Jay Rayner, Lorraine Kelly, Rob Brydon, Paul Ross, Sonali Shah, and other members of communities across the UK have already taken part and feature on the website, and you can see them at this link: lifeanddeaf.co.uk/good-morning

‘Sign Good Morning’ campaign

I am a Londoner. I am a worker. I am deaf.

I am a young person. I am Hindu. I am a woman.

Whichever community I am in, I am always deaf.

I am fluent in a British language

yet I have rarely seen an accomplished actor, musician, sports person, politician or public figure use my language.

When I turn on the television my language is missing, I am missing.

I am not on the radio. I am sometimes on Facebook or YouTube. I am rarely on Eastenders. I am not in story books.

I am not there in the morning, nobody says good morning.

That most basic and beautiful early morning greeting is not there for me, not on the radio, not on the television, not in the newspapers, rarely on the tube, train or bus.

I believe that if deaf people could see others signing ‘Good morning’ it would be a start.

It would make them feel alive.

I think change is in the air.

Mayuri Hirani, young Life & Deaf poet

The Life & Deaf Association uses poetry and the arts to help deaf children explore their identities and develop communication skills and emotional literacy, and their overall aim is to improve the mental health of future generations of deaf people. 

For more information about Life and Deaf’s upcoming performances and projects, go to: http://www.lifeanddeaf.co.uk/