Elisa Nuevo Vallin: Deaf Awareness for all in the workplace

This article is posted in association with our supporter, Deaf Umbrella.

Today I am calling out to all companies – well actually, the people who run these companies!

Did you know that many deaf people in the workplace are committed to improving the deaf awareness within the workplace?

This blog post is dedicated to those people really involved in the full social integration of their deaf workers.

I am the Digital Campaigner at Deaf Umbrella and also I have a website for Spanish deaf people (www.InfoSordos.com). This is an activity that I run on my spare time. I do it because I am passionate about this; I am directly connected with the deaf community (my parents are both deaf) and because I want to actively contribute to and campaign for a more accessible society for everyone.

I have experienced discrimination at first hand far too many times! I have seen how deaf people have felt completely isolated and totally powerless at the hands of others, and this hurts!

It is up to all of us to promote better Deaf Awareness, both in the workplace and beyond.

It is very hard for me when a deaf person that I have not had contact with before, approaches me through InfoSordos to ask for assistance with a lack of deaf awareness within the workplace.

Deaf Umbrella will always seek to address this where we can, explain to colleagues about the feelings of loneliness and discrimination that result from their (often unwitting actions) and hope to facilitate and promote changes for the better for all concerned.

However, InfoSordos is primarily Spanish – if only we could refer the people asking for assistance in Spain to our Deaf Awareness training in the UK!

On my website I have a lot of videos helping raise deaf awareness and trying bring together deaf culture and the hearing world. It would be great if all companies with deaf workers could spend a few minutes playing these videos to all their staff, wouldn’t it?! This is my dream…..

So, after some thought, I created a poster to bring this information to more peoples’ attention in an easy and simple format – just an A4 document with snappy content to hold the eye, with basic deaf awareness information.

At Deaf Umbrella we work every day to promote deaf awareness; our website is fully accessible (with BSL and subtitled videos), we have training courses and sign language services to support the deaf community and I would love to do my bit by sharing this poster on our social media channels. So, I have translated my poster into English for you to share.

So, please do spread the word! Just CLICK HERE and you could send it by email or print it and pin it in a visible place.

Also, please remember that you can always take a look to our Deaf Awareness Training Courses – with Access to Work funding these can be FREE to many employers too! 🙂

Would you mind sharing this information? Help us to spread the word about Deaf Awareness for all! Thank you very much! 🙂

Elisa was born and grew up in Santander, Spain until the last summer when she moved to London. She is a CODA and has a website and fanpage on Facebook where she uploads videos in Spanish Sign Language about her trips, recipes, culture, and the Deaf Community. She works for Deaf Umbrella as their Digital Campaigner.