Rebecca A Withey: What I wish everyone would learn from Deaf Awareness Week (BSL)

With Deaf Awareness week just around the corner, I’m getting ready for one of my busiest times of year. As well as the month of December – when everybody seems to want to learn a signed song – Deaf Awareness Week sees interests pique in anything deaf related and my email inbox gets a flurry of requests.

The week is a great opportunity to highlight important issues and continue to spread awareness on what deaf and hard of hearing people face on a day to day basis. During the week I often share free resources to schools with deaf pupils as a way of giving back to the deaf community and encouraging the normalisation of sign language by providing it in a fun and accessible way – signed song.

Online, deaf social media influencers tend to open up their DM’s to enquiring minds, answering all sorts of questions on anything Deafness related and we see campaigns and messages being shared by deaf organisations and companies across the UK.

It’s a really positive week and a very worthy campaign to follow. Yet with the spectrum of deafness being so huge, it sometimes feels impossible to cover everything in a single week! So I’ve abbreviated everything I’ve ever wanted hearing people to know about deafness into the following points.

(Please be aware I use the term deaf to encompass all levels; hard of hearing, deafened, mild-moderate-severe-profoundly deaf.)

Deafness is not a ‘one size fits all.’

There is not only one type of deafness, one diagnosis, one cause and only one method that deaf people use to communicate. Deaf and hard of hearing people are very much all individuals with unique circumstances and a mixed bag of life experiences. So don’t assume if you’ve met or worked with one deaf person, that everyone else will be the same.

I was once booked for a job where the person assumed they’d be able to work with me without an interpreter because their previous deaf client ‘could hear well with their cochlear implant.’ I refused to attend their meeting without an interpreter because I had access needs that were not being met.

I’ve also had people meet me and unknowingly patronise me by muting their lip pattern and answering everything I say with a thumbs up – as if I would not be able to understand anything else.

Whilst I communicate in a bilingual way – with both English and British Sign Language  – I accept and respect that not every other deaf person is the same as me. Some are brought up orally and use only English. Others use Signed Supported English. Some are raised purely with British Sign Language. Whatever works for you, great!

But what isn’t great is assuming we know what someone else needs. So please always ask what a deaf person requires accessibility wise.

Deaf people work very hard to communicate with you.

Deaf people use varying methods to understand and communicate with hearing people. They may lipread, read body language, gesture, speak, use sign language or revert to typing on a phone / writing on paper. For far too long, deaf people have been expected to adapt and work hard to communicate and their efforts are very often overlooked or underappreciated.

When I communicate with other parents in the school playground for example, they have no idea I’m relying solely on lipreading. I don’t physically hear a thing.

So when they speak quickly, crack a joke, turn away from me or break into a smile, My brain automatically works hard to figure out what’s going on. I also have to make an effort to speak clearly and at the right volume for them to understand me. I am constantly in vigilant mode.

As a result, sometimes I’m just not in the mood for speaking/lipreading. I may be fatigued or have eye tiredness from using my eyes all day. It’s not personal – it’s just too much.

Wouldn’t it be nice for someone to break into a little bit of sign language for me and meet me halfway?

Deaf people are more than just their deafness.

I understand that to someone who has never met a deaf person before, deafness is of great interest to them. ‘How did they become deaf? What can they actually hear? Can they speak? Do they sign?’ – are the most common questions. But if you look past the deaf label you’ll find a person who has opinions, likes and dislikes, hobbies, interests and much more to say about themselves than just their deafness.

I once bumped into a girl who I attended University with. She had a companion with her and when introducing me, she said ‘This is Becky, the deaf girl from Uni.’ Wow. Yes my deafness distinguished me from others but the bluntness in which I was labelled The Deaf Girl took me aback. Is that all I was to her?

And there was another local lady who – upon discovering I was deaf – would bring up a deaf related topic to me Every. Single. Time. I bumped into her. It was sweet at first, mentioning the interpreters she had seen on the television and the random signs that she knew, but when conversations started reverting to Mr Tumble on the Cbeebies show and Makaton signs, I knew it had gone too far.

She didn’t see ‘me’ she just saw my deafness. Yes – my deafness is a part of me, but it’s not all of me and it’s the same for other deaf people too. We want you to understand how to communicate with us and become aware of our needs because ultimately we want the world to open up to us.

Imagine if everyone knew how to communicate with a deaf person. Imagine if everyone understood how to be accessible. Imagine if hearing peope valued deaf peoples opinions and really got to know them as individuals!

The world truly would be our oyster! We could go anywhere, be anything and make friends with whoever we wanted to!

The above really sums up everything I wish mainstream society would know and remember from Deaf Awareness Week. Feel free to share, and if there’s anything you would add to the list, be sure to comment below!

Deaf Awareness Week takes place 6-12th May 

Rebecca A Withey is a writer and creative artist based in the Midlands. She fronts the all deaf sign performance group Unify and is the Assistant Editor for The Limping Chicken. Rebecca is a Deaf, bilingual BSL user passionate about music and telling stories. Find out more at www.rawithey.com