About
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!
About We Support Deaf Awareness
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 were 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?
Last updated: 18/02/2025