Tim Smith tells us about being a deaf bus driver (BSL)

Hi everyone, my name is Tim Smith, I’m 34 and I live in Wigan, Greater Manchester. I’m proud to say I am a qualified bus driver.

I was born profoundly deaf and my main communication method growing up was BSL. The family who adopted me when I was a baby were all hearing and had no experience with deafness. When I was moved to mainstream school, I learned to talk and read english. I do still sign, I have my level 2 BSL qualification too.

My career started back in 2021 when I was actually working in retail part time. I worked tirelessly throughout COVID as front line worker and I didn’t fancy the promotion to shop manager as the hours were very long and the responsibility too big.

So I started looking for a job that was full time so I could afford to move out of my parents’ home.

I fancied a new challenge and thought about bus driving. I applied with Stagecoach who were the main company operating in Wigan area and I was pleased that I was given the job. I then undertook three weeks of intensive training, covering theory, hazard perception and practical driving on the road under the expertise of my instructor.

In Sept 2023, Bee Network came and the bus operation was in public ownership so we had a new company, Go Ahead North West. This came with changes – new ticket machine, new buses and new routes.

I’m pleased to say I’m nearly 3 years into my job and I love it, driving around and getting passengers from A to B. I have now been promoted to Driver Mentor so it’s now my responsibility to guide newly passed drivers for one week with me, guiding them around all the ins and outs of the job and making sure they are safe before going out on their own.

My employers were really accepting of my deafness from the start – they had no problem with me being deaf. DVLA also has no issue with my deafness and I am also able to communicate by voice should I need to evacuate the bus for any reason.

I have since found out that DVLA will accept deaf people without speech to drive a bus, if they use text to speech software to explain to the passengers what’s happening.

My main concern about becoming a bus driver was being unable to hear the passengers’ bells when they want to alight the bus. I resolved this by checking the bell light on my dashboard every time I approach a bus stop.

I also check and communicate with passengers to clarify as many come from different backgrounds and have different accents – some are strong or some don’t speak English very well.

Being a deaf bus driver is a lot easier nowadays as the fare is now capped at £2 nationwide, so there’s little communication between driver and passengers required – if they hand down a £2 fare, you just issue a ticket without asking where they are heading to as previously you would have to ask and charge them accordingly.

If you’re deaf and fancy becoming a bus driver, have a go, it’s not as hard as you might think!

By Tim Smith.