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This week’s question could be seen as being a bit provocative. Am I suggesting that deaf awareness courses have no value, or that the work of deaf awareness teachers is ineffective?
Not at all. There are some fantastic deaf awareness courses out there which can really benefit hearing people who do not have any experience of communicating with a deaf person. They can enter that classroom with no previous experience, yet go away with the knowledge and tools they need to get started.
But what I have started to question is why communicating well with a deaf person in the long run comes so easily to some people, yet so hard to others.
I have met people who have spent their whole lives working with deaf children or adults yet continue to mumble, to turn away when they speak, or wear a big bushy beard that covers their mouth, yet act like that’s an appropriate decision.
Equally, I have met people who have never met a deaf person before, yet somehow know, as if it comes naturally to them, how to adapt the way they speak to make it easier for a deaf person to understand. They maintain eye contact, speak clearly, and gesture to make themselves understood.
It seems to me that although people can learn how to become more deaf aware, and can certainly improve their communication skills, a big factor in how successful they are in the long run may depend on something more basic: whether they have the ability to put themselves in another person’s shoes.
The mistake that I see most commonly is people who start out communicating well, only to forget after a minute or two other person is deaf,and return to their usual made of speaking. It’s as if they forget, or their mind wanders, and they need to be reminded again. And again…
I don’t think this is something that only applies to deafness. I remember working in a London theatre as an Access Officer, welcoming people with different disabilities to the venue. Some of the ushers instinctively knew how to guide a blind or partially sighted person up the theatre’s stairs to the auditorium. Others found it more difficult.
So, what do you think? Is putting deaf awareness into practice more about possessing empathy than anything else? Tell us below.
By Charlie Swinbourne, Editor
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June Neale
February 21, 2015
I agree about empathy needed for most disabilities but in particular for deafness. Many deaf people are so clued up and clever with communication that it is easy I suppose – to forget the basic tenets of good communication and other people are frightened of patronising them. I have an friend who despite all ‘my training keeps talking about a ‘deaf aid’ rather than a ‘hearing’ but still she does her best and unfortunately we often have to be grateful for small mercies! As you say life is never perfect. June
Cathy
February 21, 2015
I certainly agree that empathy is the missing factor! If deaf people could swop lives with hearing people, it would be a different ball game!!! We wouldn’t need Deaf Awareness at all.
I do sympathise with those who forget, but Iam aware some know perfectly well what they are doing, so it is hypocritical in some instances!
Where I have explained about deafness in some cases and that I try to lipread where possible, people have then resorted to mumbling so lipreading is impossible, or they cover their mouth on purpose. This is downright rude, especially in the presence of deaf people or person.
We have an awful long way to go, but we can’t teach empathy as it is more or less an innate characteristic: you either have it or you don’t! Neither can we force somebody who loves having a beard to shave it all off because he works with deaf people! It would make sense for a man to do so, but what right do we have to impose such a restriction on what is essentially a personal choice? I would not stand for someone telling me to wear a skirt instead of trousers!!!
Maybe we need a psychometric test at interview stage, so that we only recruit those who have empathy as an innate character trait!!!
madcapy
February 21, 2015
I think you are spot on Charlie. Empathy is a big part of it definitely. I have seen so many times family members of a Deaf person who do what you have described. When I encouraged one of my friends to stand up to her family, she was told, ‘No need, you can just lip read us.’ This was even after having a representative from Sense coming down to enact some scenarios to make them see what it is like. As you know, the strain of lip reading continually, especially when there is more than one person takes its toll.
I have also seen basic Deaf Awareness courses done for Council and Housing Trust employees, and to be honest, afterwards it has been like ‘water off a duck’s back’ as they have gone back to their usual ways of ‘non-Deaf aware’. There has also been occasional provision for Level 1 for 2 employees, so there will be someone available on the front desk for Deaf Tenants or needing housing/council issues help. Within a few months those people have been moved ‘side-ways’ to another department, so what basics they had learned were a waste of time. To back this up; on one occasion there was a forum which Deaf people were invited to, and those who had done the BSL course, stuck to sitting with the other staff and not integrating with the Deaf. So often yes, I would say they are a waste of time.
Some courses however I am sure have been beneficial, and I am hoping that someone will post here on the Limping Chicken to say this is true.
Runaway Train
February 22, 2015
Interesting. I have worked with people whom I have never had to tell about my APD, because they instinctively clocked that I needed to lipread them; likewise some of my very close friends seemed to be so instinctively aware that it was literally a couple of years before I explained to them about my dodgy hearing, because I didn’t need to and the subject had never previously arisen in conversation! Some friends have taken a while and a few remindings, who now will ‘self-correct’, as it were, when I ask them to repeat something – their efforts are also appreciated.
I’ve been very fortunate to encounter very few completely clueless people (maybe I don’t get out much!); one who springs to mind was a very enthusiastic speech therapist delivering a training session at the school where I work. He paced around, turning this way and that, without using the microphone – impossible to follow. We have one teacher who wears HAs, so senior management had a quiet word to ask him to stand still, stop turning away and basically be lipread-able. Maybe he didn’t hear the quiet word(!) because when he faced our direction he would stay there for a couple of seconds, then he was off again … that was not our most productive training session!
What baffles me most is when deaf people are deaf-unaware – I’ve met a few, and had to ask them to stop covering their mouths / stop turning away / other miscellaneous cardinal sins of communication!