Amy Gibbs: We need more visible Deaf role models

After hearing various stories and meeting people who grow up in a predominantly hearing world, I feel compelled to write this article.

It’s becoming harder and harder for young Deaf children to have access to Deaf role models.

I strongly feel this will become a bigger problem in the future seeing that more Deaf children are now in mainstream schools and not given opportunities to meet inspirational Deaf adults.

This situation worsens with present Deaf clubs closing down. I am in my 30s and I rarely see older Deaf people outside of Deaf clubs.  I used to attend my local Deaf club when I was younger for youth club sessions and play schemes.

As a profoundly Deaf BSL user adult who was both educated in both Deaf and mainstream schools, I see more Deaf and HoH children who are educated in mainstream schools who rarely and some never, meet  Deaf adults in person who are confident, comfortably use BSL and are successful in their own chosen careers.

You will easily click on various social media channels and YouTube clips to see Deaf adults signing away. But this is so different than meeting a Deaf adult in person and interacting with them.

It is more personal and impactful in person. You simply do not get the same warmth when you receive an email or virtual message than a face to face interaction and handwritten letter. It is unhealthy to rely too much on social media.

BSL using Deaf adults are not visible in mainstream schools and their influences are minimal. I used to love meeting Deaf adults when they visit my Deaf school and hearing their life stories.

All of my classmates and I used to drown them with endless questions! They made us to appreciate our deafness and realise that we can do anything. We really need to have more Deaf visitors to mainstream schools to talk about their life stories or sporting achievements, for example and more importantly have Deaf teachers around.

It can be a soul destroying experience for a child in mainstream schools without any Deaf peers and Deaf role models around in order to create a positive Deaf identity.

‘The most destructive part of the process of going to a mainstream school was the total loss of any recognition I was a deaf person.’ (Deaf Ex-Mainstreamer’s Group, 2003: 11)

I have seen many lost and confused faces from Deaf people who are not immersed in a Deaf world. They are puzzled by the fact that I do not wear cochlear implants or hearing aids. There is nothing wrong with wearing them; they are just not suitable for me. They are heavily taught that relying too much on BSL can affect your speech and your literacy skills.    

It is pretty obvious to see Deaf schools, both day and residential, closing down in recent years. ‘…it seems that there were 75 schools for the deaf in the UK in 1982 (Moore 2008), and this had declined to 23 in 2010 (CRIDE report 2011).’

The majority of deaf children are being educated in mainstream schools nowadays and it is here to stay whether we like it or not. ‘There are 35,000 deaf children in England. Around 85% are taught in mainstream schools’. (www.ndcs.org.uk)

It is totally fine if a child prefers to communicate orally and feels comfortable in a hearing world. This is not a debate between sign and oral. Everyone has a right to choice.

I just feel it is unfair that a child who prefers to communicate in BSL can feel completely lost and unhappy in mainstream schools. This is much worse when he or she does not have Deaf friends to play with or does not have the right support available in lessons.

It is wonderful to have the British Deaf Association setting up Deaf Roots and Pride Project to provide Deaf Role Models/Mentors and National Deaf Children’s Society offering events for families and young deaf people. We need to see more like these.  

I went to a local mainstream school to do my GCSEs. I look back and feel lucky that I went there with my fellow Deaf classmates and a qualified Teacher of the Deaf with us the whole time.

We had two interpreters with us in all lessons. I would feel completely lost without them. I got on fine with hearing peers there and some of them tried hard to communicate with us in sign language.  

Even though it was and still is a good state school, I found my time there less enjoyable than time spent at my Deaf school. The best days of my life were spent in my Deaf school. It was almost like my second home.

I will never forget when I was delivering a presentation about growing up as a Deaf person to hearing families. I was often told that nowadays children do not have any opportunities to meet any Deaf role models and a strong Deaf identity was lost.

 I was asked questions, such as, ‘How can you read and write well if you cannot use speech?’, ‘How do you learn to read and write?’ I explained that learning BSL does not affect your English skills.

Also it is beneficial to encourage reading and signing to babies and they will turn out just fine. My parents learnt sign language and read books to me every night.

This is one other reason why we need more Deaf role models to create a positive and powerful Deaf image and to remove negative assumptions.

Amy Gibbs is a proud mum, runner and a foodie.

References:

https://www.batod.org.uk/information/schools-for-the-deaf/

Deaf Ex-Mainstreamer’s Group. (2003) Between a Rock and A Hard Place: the deaf mainstream experience, Wakefield: Deaf Ex-Mainstreamers Group.