Rebecca A Withey: The growing acceptance for music within the deaf community (BSL)

Slowly but surely, over the last ten years I have seen real changes in the deaf community’s attitude towards music – and positive changes at that.

Not only do we have Troi Lee and the Deaf Rave team creating waves in the
social music scene with a Netflix documentary to pride themselves on too we also have musicians such as Ruth Montgomery and her company AudioVisability working overseas with deaf artists and rappers too.

There is undoubtedly a growing number of sign singers coming out of the woodwork especially on social media platforms such as Tik Tok and Instagram, and a sense of liberation that more and more deaf people are ‘owning up’ to actually enjoying music.

It’s a far cry from my experience nine years ago when I was asked to be part of a televised debate that discussed whether or not signed song belonged in the deaf community. As the only person on the panel who was an advocate of signed song, it’s a fair assumption to say I felt criticised and isolated by my beliefs – that deaf people can and should be able to enjoy music, if they choose to do so.

It was actually just after the pandemic lockdown when I first noticed a buzz around signed song. Requests for online workshops came flooding in and opportunities for sign singers in mainstream events were abound.

Even respected agency Performance Interpreting began recommending deaf translators for concerts and music festivals and sign singer Fletch@ enjoyed providing access for Ed Sheeran’s tour, which delighted many deaf music lovers.

And of course, we saw Rose Ayling-Ellis compete on (and win!) Strictly Come Dancing, garnering much respect for deaf performers who work in music and on the stage. Rose was also a supporter of Unify – the all deaf performance group – and was involved in their journey as they signed a song for the King’s Coronation Concert.

With inclusive examples in the mainstream and a growing visibility of deaf musicians, dancers and artists, it isn’t any wonder that music is a hot topic right now and the team over at Deaffest, seem to agree with me.

Deaffest is a beloved film festival that has traditionally taken place annually in Wolverhampton. This year it is Deaffest’s 15 year anniversary and their theme for this year is – would you believe it – music.

Whilst it may seem at first an unusual theme for a deaf film festival, the decision to do so confirms the growing acceptance of and love for music within our community.

The Deaffest team explain:

“Music is shared universally through many different pathways and is a way of communicating and evoking emotions. Music isn’t restricted to just listening to sounds; widen your horizons and experience music through different forms such as films, music videos, sign songs, visual vernacular, hand tutting, vibrations, dance movements, visual arts, and more at Deaffest 2024!”

As Deaffest say, music isn’t just something that we only access with our ears. It can be a visual art, a kinaesthetic one and it can be felt as well as heard. Music has for too long been assumed as something only hearing people can access or enjoy, ignoring the fact that deafness is a huge spectrum and an affinity with song does not have to rely on your ability to hear.

For the last three years I have been working closely with Kakou, a music charity, delivering sign song workshops to people of all ages and sign language abilities. Whilst at first it seemed that the workshops attracted mostly hearing non-signers, in the last year the numbers of deaf sign language users attending these workshops has really exploded.

No longer should your love for music be something to feel ashamed of or be a reason to cast you out of the deaf community. It is quite possible to have a strong deaf identity, love who you are, love sign language and still adore music.

At this year’s Deaffest in Wolverhampton I will be teaching two sign song workshops,  one to BSL beginners and the second for fluent BSL users who would like to explore their own personal sign song style. You can see more information about the festival and book your place on my workshop here.