Teachers of the Deaf express concern about impact of face coverings in schools

The British Association of Teachers of the Deaf (BATOD) has released a statement on the impact of face coverings for deaf children and young people and deaf teachers. It says:

BATOD is calling for everyone to be aware of the significant impact of face coverings for deaf children

Since the start of the pandemic, the Qualified Teacher of the Deaf (QToD) profession has striven to support the learning, emotional and access needs of deaf children and young people (CYP). The negative impact of the use of face coverings, which are of course necessary for health reasons, is that they affect access to and understanding of those around them. The changing guidance issued to UK schools is causing tremendous concern for deaf CYP, their families and QToDs. Exemptions are in place but not everyone is comfortable removing their face covering.

Use of face coverings in the learning environment reduces the opportunity for speech reading, understanding facial expressions, sound quality, accessing communication from others – peers and teachers – even with optimum personal hearing devices and assistive listening technology. This will have a life-long impact on their academic potential, employment prospects, and social and emotional well-being. The pandemic has heightened these difficulties and increased the need for QToD input. However, the lack of clarity in the current guidance compounds the challenge for QToDs in supporting mainstream colleagues.

BATOD is concerned about the very real risk of increased mental health difficulties for deaf CYP. Pre-covid times, statistics showed that around one in three deaf CYP had mental health difficulties mainly as a result of challenges around communication. QToDs have been working to help children understand why face coverings are needed and finding solutions. Use of clear face coverings is helpful for many deaf CYP but there has been a lack of investment and provision of clear face coverings for use in education.

QToDs are highly specialist teachers trained to provide guidance about the needs of deaf CYP from birth to higher education. Deafness is a ‘low incidence high need’ disability and the level of need of a deaf child does not always equate to their level of deafness.

Martine Monksfield, President Elect of BATOD, states “As a Deaf QToD coming into the President role, it is hugely disappointing to see deaf children and young people being excluded in education with little thought or solutions for accessibility to communication and learning with face coverings.”

Educational professionals, deaf CYP and their families and QToDs need to continue to work together to coproduce risk assessments and find solutions to reduce the negative impact of the use of face coverings. BATOD would like to see greater collaboration and involvement with the relevant government departments in all four nations in order to ensure deaf CYP’s outcomes and life chances are not further impacted by the pandemic.

BATOD has issued updated advice on the practical issues raised by face coverings. It can be found here: https://www.batod.org.uk/march-2021-batod- update-about-face-coverings-in-education-settings/