More Deaf Awareness Please
In support of our THIS-ABILITY campaign, Youmanity wishes to help raise awareness of the difficulties faced by Deaf and hard of hearing persons.
Each year deaf awareness campaigns seek to increase understanding and awareness around hearing loss.
As a hidden disability, the issues faced by Deaf and/or hard of hearing people, whether they use British Sign Language (BSL), lip read or use what residual hearing they have, are often underestimated.
There are more than 10 million people in the UK with some form of hearing loss – that’s 1 in 6 of the population! It is estimated that some 800,000 people are severely or profoundly deaf.
Disabled men experience a pay gap of 11% compared with non-disabled men, while the gap between disabled women and non-disabled women is double this at 22%.
Deaf people are twice as likely to experience mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, and twice as likely to be at risk of suicide compared to hearing people.
Types of hearing loss
Sensorineural hearing loss is the result of damage to the hair cells inside the inner ear or damage to the hearing nerve (or both). It changes your ability to hear quiet sounds and reduces the quality of the sound. As such, sound becomes quieter and sometimes muffled. This hearing loss can be temporary or permanent.
Hearing-impaired people often feel isolated as they struggle to follow and understand conversations. Hearing–impaired people are often perceived as ignorant or stupid when they don’t understand or hear a conversation.
Trying to get support in the workplace as a deaf or hard of hearing individual can be challenging. Firstly because employers find it difficult to comprehend that every single hearing loss case is unique and secondly because each person’s supported communication needs are different depending on their preferred option for communicating.
Some people with hearing loss choose to go through Access to Work for support which often includes access to a BSL interpreter.
An important organisation facilitating productivity between This-Abled persons, employers and businesses is the Business Disability Forum. More info HERE
Hearing-impaired people can also find support from the following: