Bloggers

This week, 6-12th May we are celebrating Deaf Awareness Week. There’s so many incredible things going on this week, from UK Council on Deafness’ theme of ‘Celebrating Deaf Role Models’ to Action on Hearing Loss’ ‘#DontBeADonut Be Deaf Aware’ campaign and people sharing their stories on social media.

As a deaf blogger, I have been invited to give deaf awareness talks and informal training sessions to organisations, such as Banks, the Education sector and local groups. Each speech varies, covering different topics, numerous life experiences

When I started blogging, I was also going through the process of finding my deaf identity, and part of that was looking for a deaf role model; someone to look up to. Other than the famous deaf celebrities, I couldn’t find that person and I aspired for an influential individual, so I figured why not become that person?

On May 27, Deaf Rave had its first outdoor festival in Tower Hamlets' beautiful Victoria Park. It was organised by 'DJ Chinaman' Troi Lee, who I had previously interviewed. I have been writing about the Deaf Community for more than a decade and yet I hardly ever meet Deaf people. Seeing them rather than just reading about them was so emotional.

William Shaw (1869-1949) was arguably the greatest Deaf inventor. He invented Deaf-friendly doorbells, alarms, clocks, baby monitors and phones.

“Tracing your Deaf family history can be harder than you think,” explains Geraldine O’Halloran during our interview, “but once you start it soon becomes...

Discrimination is a topic that society doesn’t address very often. Like mental health, politics or religion ... it’s still taboo. Why is that?

How can astronomy be made a deaf-friendly career path? How can we encourage deaf students into the subject? Just imagine being a scientist who has to text or (if their colleague understands it) fingerspell every star, planet and comet they are discussing with hearing colleagues.

Finding employment can be challenging but when you have a hearing loss, it can become much harder. The theme: To disclose or not disclose, was sparked by an experience of mine and discusses whether deaf people should have to reveal their deafness to potential employers.

Around 9 million people in the UK have some form of hearing loss*. Every deaf person is different, with various degrees of loss, and using a wide range of assistive technologies depending upon their access requirements. Communication is the main barrier that deaf people face, particularly with access to services.