Deaf Awareness Week 2023
Deaf Awareness Week 1 to 7 May 2023
In the United Kingdom, there are high numbers of adults and children living with hearing loss. Current estimates from the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) suggest that there are 12 million adults and over 50,000 children who are deaf or have hearing loss in the UK. This number is projected to rise. It is also estimated that 1 in 8 adults in the UK have tinnitus all the time or regularly. This is hearing noises which are not caused by an outside source, and is also linked to hearing loss.
The RNID shares useful information about facts and figures. Find out more.
Deaf-friendly resources
During Deaf Awareness Week, the RNID is encouraging people everywhere to become more deaf aware. Becoming deaf aware means really thinking about communication and how to ensure that everyone can be included in conversations, teaching and learning, and meetings. There are some useful tips here on how to communicate with someone who has hearing loss.
These tips have also been condensed into a handy poster which you can download here to display in your school, college or workplace.
There is also a plethora of resources available to support the teaching of deaf children and young people including the following:
Deaf-friendly teaching: For primary school staff
Deaf-friendly teaching: For staff in special schools
Deaf-friendly teaching: For secondary school staff
There are also lots of resources and helpful videos on the website of the National Deaf Children’s Society. Check out their video of top Deaf Awareness Tips here. Visit their website for more ideas on being deaf-friendly and promoting clear communication
Windows 11 – Live Caption
Using technology can also help people with hearing loss to follow and be included in conversations. Live captioning tools can help everyone to understand audio, not just those who are deaf. Live captions is now available in the latest version of Windows 11 – more information and instructions can be found here. Live Caption is also available in Chrome, and can caption any content being watched. More information on Live Caption settings in Chrome can be found here.
Web Captioner
Web Captioner is another free service, which allows real-time captioning. In this online programme, there are options to customise spoken language and the appearance of the captions by changing font style and font/background colour.
Having tested this in recent CENMAC meetings, I would say that it has fairly good accuracy, and is easy to set up and use.
Let us know if you need any support working with children and young people who are deaf, and share your stories of how you are becoming more deaf aware with us.
Use hashtags #DeafAware, #DeafAwarenessWeek, and #DAW2023 to join in the conversation on social media.
