Yen Lieu: DEWA and their research project looking for parents from ethnic minority backgrounds with deaf children (BSL)

Watch Yen signing her article below, or scroll down for the English Translation:

English transcript: 

I want to introduce what DEWA is, why it was set up and when.

DEWA – Deaf Ethnic Women’s Association was previously known as Asian Deaf Women’s Association (ADWA) and was created in 1992.

The Asian Deaf Women’s Association was established with the support of the London Borough of Newham in response to an identified lack of provision for Deaf women in the borough who used Asian sign languages and also a lack of linguistically and culturally appropriate support for these women, who were often vulnerable and socially excluded.

Deaf Ethnic Women’s Association is a national organisation run and controlled by Deaf women from Minority Ethnic groups. DEWA provides a range of support and empowers Minority Ethnic Deaf women to have choice and control, be active and be successful in all aspects of their lives without compromising their identity.

My role is research officer, as you can see familiar face that I have put of videos of my BSL in social media.  The project we are working on called This is Us D.E.A.F. stands for Deaf Ethnic Access Facilitate.

We are hope to find ethnic parents with deaf children from 0-12 years, so that means I will be interviewing parents with deaf children, young deaf person and young hearing of sibling to host on Zoom.

I used to work for ADWA roughly in 2002. My role now with DEWA is a completely different role that I am really enjoying being able to research and study. It reminds me of my University days where I enjoyed researching deaf studies and women’s studies.

I can empathise with other parents being a parent myself and I want to have full access for my children who are CODA’s.

We would like to know whether there are any ethnic parents who have any difficulties accessing information especially once their child is diagnosed as deaf.

I can imagine how hard this may be. I want to make sure we can highlight these issues and work towards full access for these parents.

I have a hearing colleague name is Dawn, her role is project worker, we work together on this project and conduct research together.

Are you wondering who can join DEWA and what support / services are offered?

We are a welcoming group, Deaf women from Minority Ethnic groups are all welcome to join.

We have a drop in service where we provide information on various topics such as health, benefits, housing, childcare and using sign language interpreters. We also provide self-defence and basic counselling courses for women’s social events. We also share newsletters and host women’s groups such as crocheting, art and sports.

We don’t fully know yet the obstacles or challenges that deaf children from ethnic backgrounds experience as the research has only just begun to be conducted. We will do this by meeting parents, talking to youth groups with deaf and young hearing siblings.

To carry out these findings we are working in collaboration with the NDCS and DCAL, to find out how we can improve services for ethnic families with deaf children going forwards.

If you  are wondering how we can make positive changes for these parents, we can’t answer this until the research is complete and we understand what challenges families face.

I can tell you about the research we are carrying out with the NDCS. We will send out online questionnaires that could take around 30 mins to answer.

I will be on line if any one has any questions or needs things clarified.  We will also set up separate groups for example a group for mothers, a group for young deaf people and a group for young hearing siblings to all share their own experiences or struggles with regards to access/communication and education.

Do you want to know how to get involved and how easy it is?

Please do get in touch with DEWA@dewa.org.uk or text message us on 07597 704472

From there, we can provide information in BSL or in different spoken languages. If parents want to be involved in our research they will help us show the NDCS the gaps out there and highlight valuable things that need to improve.

We have information in BSL from a QR code on our leaflet. My hearing colleague, Dawn is able to use English spoken and on the phone for those hearing parents who don’t use BSL. Please do get in touch with me.

Some extra information for you is that we will be rewarding families who take part with gift vouchers. So please do not hesitate to get in touch with me. Thank you.

For more information see: 

Deaf Ethnic Women’s Association