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How would you feel if you suddenly couldn’t understand what people said to you?

Say you woke up tomorrow morning, and you couldn’t hear anything. No sounds, no words. How would that make you feel? What would you want people to know? How would you want them to act?

Deafness exists and it is hard enough. But for a large number of people who rely heavily on lip reading, the pandemic has made things a WHOLE lot worse. Masks are necessary, but also a huge barrier for communication.

How SHOULD your staff act when a deaf/hard of hearing customer (or employee) walks in? What SHOULD you do?

With masks set to be in place for the foreseeable future, and well beyond the end of lockdown, #WeSupportDeafAwareness has been set up to help organisations better understand how to engage with the deaf community.

Show your customers and your employees that you are inclusive, and understand the challenges of communicating when deaf or hard of hearing. Join the campaign to show #WeSupportDeafAwareness.

If you are a not-for-profit organisation, or generate revenue less than £2M per year...

Show your support by purchasing a Deaf Awareness Pledge Pack - eye-catching signs to hang up on your shopfront, reception and online. Costs just £39.99, and we'll provide you with FREE access to our online training to all members of your organisation.
All we ask is you support the campaign, put your staff through the online training, and show your employees and customers that you support deaf awareness. Support the campaign both offline and online - Twitter, LinkedIn and the web.
Simply start the application form by clicking "Revenue UNDER £2M / year" (No payment necessary)

If your business generates more than £2M revenue per year...

Whether your business has 5 employees or 5,000, we'll provide our Deaf Awareness online training for a relatively small charge. This helps us to subsidise the training for as many people as we can. We can work with you to tailor your Deaf Awareness Pledge Pack.
If you want our help as part of any PR or marketing campaign to maximise your exposure, or would like to involve us in any internal initiative (speaking engagement etc.) just shout!
Simply start the application form by clicking "Revenue OVER £2M / year" (No payment necessary)

As an individual with a considerable hearing loss, I've struggled during lockdown at times, when trying to communicate with others. The masks are absolutely necessary, but it is a significant barrier to communicating with the deaf and hard of hearing.

I wrote about some of my experiences on LinkedIn and it was clear many people didn't realise, nor understood what they should do.

I ran some online training to help people understand what it might be like to be deaf, rely on lipreading and feel excluded.

The feedback to the training has been overwhelming, but it made me realise just how unprepared many organisations are for when we enter the "new normal" of Post-COVID.

I want organisations - for both employees and customers - to show that they understand and can support the deaf and hard of hearing communities.

The training has been further developed, executive summaries added, guidelines and tips have been created. Organisations can now access it, follow the guidelines, and show that they understand in some way what it is like to be deaf. Welcome to #WeSupportDeafAwareness!

Are you simply interested in being more deaf aware? Do you want to learn some simple tips and behaviours that you can apply so that you can communicate more effectively, and help the deaf and hard of hearing to be less isolated?

Download the "7 Easy Ways To Be #Deaf Aware" - no email address required. In return, we'd be really grateful if you could promote our #WeSupportDeafAwareness campaign on social media. It would mean a lot - we are trying to get the message out to as many people as possible.

STATISTICS

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

WHY WAS IT SET UP?

ARE YOU AN INDIVIDUAL WHO WANTS TO BE MORE DEAF AWARE?