Deaf Awareness Week

We are celebrating Deaf Awareness Week at RHSU with a student-led campaign! The campaign aims to bring awareness to the experiences faced in and by the deaf community. The awareness week, delivered as a student-led campaign, explores this theme through a variety of different events such as a movie screening and guest speaker as well as informative and engaging content like Instagram reels. The week will cover topics on how to support a deaf person such as:

• What does it mean to be deaf?
• How to interact with a deaf person
• What deaf people want people to know

All events can be found on the campaign page and events calendar on the SU website.  

Making Science More Accessible (09/05/24) 

• A team of academics at RHUL worked on a collaborative project with the Science Museum Group and Scottish Sensory Centre at the University of Edinburgh to co-create new BSL terms for the scientific vocabulary.
• Staff from the Earth Sciences department worked with sign linguists at the Science and Innovation Park in Wiltshire. 
• Focus on the workshop was topic of Climate change/Geophysics
• New signs were created for the following words: “Earthquake”, “Earthquake focus”, “Polariser”, “Petrographical microscope” and “Ozone Spectrograph.”

Attitude is Everything

• SU been working with them since November 2015 to improve access to Students Union events 
• SU helpdesk has an induction loop 
• Main goal of Atittude is Everything is to connect disabled people with music and live event industries to improve access to them. 

2023 Deaf Awareness Week RHUL

• The theme was Access to Communication 
• Outlined 5 ways to be more deaf aware 
• Mentions that deafness is classed as a non-visible disability 
• Lowercase deaf is used when referring to audiological conditions that affect hearing, uppercase Deaf is used when referring to the community 

5 ways outlined are;

• When talking, ensure people have a clear view of your face- deaf people rely some part on lip reading, which is difficult to do when you don't have a clear view of someone's mouth. Make sure to turn to the person you’re talking to and that the lighting is clear, don't move around much/cover your face
• Speak to the deaf person themselves- Imagine talking to someone whose attention was concentrated solely on another person, without looking at you at all – you would probably find it off-putting. Therefore, if a sign language interpreter accompanies a deaf person, ensure you talk to them directly, instead of looking at the interpreter.
• Speak clearly- Unless a deaf or hard of hearing person explicitly asks, do not speak any louder or slower than you usually would. As well as making lip reading more difficult, this can also be very patronising. Furthermore, in group conversations, there is a tendency for people to speak over each other, which can make things unclear. Consider introducing a practice whereby people raise their hand or make another sign before they speak.
• Understanding assistive listening devices- In a group setting, a deaf person may request you to use a microphone which is clipped onto your top, placed around your neck, or handheld.
• Don't assume a deaf person needs help unless asked for - As with all types of disability, every person’s experience is unique. You may understand the support needs of one deaf or hard-of-hearing person, but do not assume these are the same for everyone. There are different ranges of deafness, and different people use different communication techniques or assistive technology to support them. It is okay to ask someone if they need any assistance, but if they say no, please respect their independence and capability.

Communication 

• To get the attention of a deaf person, wave your hand in their line of sight.
• If their backs are turned to you, lightly tap them on the shoulder.
• Avoid changing how you speak; don't feel the need to speak faster or slower. 
• When talking to them, make sure you face them- a lot of deaf people rely on lipreading to some degree to understand 
• Don't be afraid to ask how someone wants to be communicated with; not all deaf people and people with hearing loss are the same. Find out what they prefer.

BSL

• Most Deaf people who use Sign language in the UK use British Sign Language (BSL), a mix of hand gestures, facial expressions and body language. 
• For many Deaf people, to learn English is to learn a second language.
• In BSL, one sign can often represent what would be an entire sentence in English; on the other hand, some English words do not have a sign equivalent.

Deaf and deaf

• deaf = anyone who is hard of hearing or does not hear much
• Deaf = refers to people who have been deaf all their lives or are pre-lingually deaf. Tend to communicate in sign language as their first language.

We can’t wait to see you at events and celebrate Deaf Awareness Week with the Deaf Community and all students on campus. All events can be found on the campaign page [link] and events calendar on the SU website. For more information or support, get in contact with Voice@su.rhul.ac.uk