Emily Howlett: A little bit of Deaf Awareness goes a long way

Firstly, let me start by agreeing with what you are thinking; this is nothing new.

Time and again, the d/Deaf community tries to tell the rest of society how much better, interesting and friendly it is when people engage with and encourage Deaf Awareness. And, by contrast, how upsetting, isolating and difficult a place the world becomes when they choose not to.

It is not difficult to learn and demonstrate Deaf Awareness. It’s basically empathy and kindness, mixed with a little common sense.

It’s holding back on that part of your brain that says “I don’t personally experience this, so it’s weird and bad” and trying to replace it with “I want to understand this, and use that understanding to make the world slightly better for us all”.

But it seems however loud as we are (and, trust me, deaf people know how to be LOUD), the message never quite manages to get through. So, as yet another attempt, I thought I’d give The World At Large some easy-to-understand examples (that have actually happened to me, and all recently too) – and encourage you guys to shout about your own experiences too.

General Interactions

Good Example: I was out walking my dog (the ever-present George) along an old cycle trail with my Deaf friend.

We were signing animatedly (she has a new nephew, and still has lots of lovely things to say about him because he hasn’t been sick on her yet). Suddenly we noticed that a runner coming the other way was slowing down, and waving.

I did wonder for a moment or two whether he was having a heart attack, but as it turned out, he had noticed our flying fingers and, knowing BSL himself, spotted the opportunity for a chat.

It was SO nice to have a normal, friendly conversation with someone we just happened to bump into, that I even forgave him the fact that he was a runner.

Bad Example: (Yet another) cyclist who, on the same walk, nearly took out me, my friend and my dog rather than slow down or switch sides when he realised we weren’t reacting to his yells. Now, cyclists do not have the right of way anyway, but stupid, narrow-minded ones have it even less so.

Awareness of Access

Good Example: I recently had to contact two tiny companies, both based in South Wales.

These are places with very few staff members, probably less than 10, and no great amount of money to invest in staff training. I had to telephone, using Text Relay, which is always a massive pain in anyone’s backside, but especially mine because I am impatient and intolerant of stupidity (see comments about the cyclist above).

During the call to each company representative, I was astounded by the fact they quickly realised how Text Relay works, realised I was Deaf and asked whether, upon visiting their premises, I would like sign language support. These are tiny little places, and their Deaf awareness is top notch; it really made my day.

Bad Example: Literally any audiology department in the country, whose sole purpose is to interact with and cater for d/Deaf and hearing impaired patients.

These places are hotbeds of idiocy; the most unaware and unhelpful environments I’ve ever frequented as a Deaf person. Patients’ names shouted from behind, general lack of BSL skills among the staff, inability to provide interpreters, terrible lighting… the list goes on for all eternity.

Not Being A D******

Good Example: The person behind me in a bar who, on realising I wasn’t responding when he asked me to move out of the way, tapped my shoulder and smiled instead. Clearly he should have also offered to buy me a drink, but we’ll let that one go.

Bad Example: The woman who found herself behind me as we and a thousand other parents piled through the bottleneck of the school gates, and decided to yell obscenities in front of a large group of small children because I’d ‘ignored’ her saying good morning to me.

But, on the plus side, she got two lessons for the price of one; Deaf people don’t respond, however loud you shout and young children get told off for swearing so frequently that they will gang up and tear you apart if you do it yourself…

There are endless other examples, both good and bad. I’d really love to know yours.

If we’re lucky, the rest of the world might finally be listening too.

Emily Howlett is a profoundly Deaf actress, writer and teacher. Emily is co-director of PAD Productions and makes an awful lot of tea. And mess. She now has not one, but four grey eyebrow hairs. C’est la vie. She tweets as @ehowlett