Ending the communication divide: why we all need to get deaf aware

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Language barriers and the hearing world

Those of us without hearing or speech impairment mostly take the ability to communicate with the people around us for granted. For the deaf community, it isn’t always that simple. Being born into a hearing world that isn’t adapted to your communication needs creates a unique set of challenges. 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents with little or no experience of deafness or knowledge of how to communicate with a deaf person.¹ As a result, many deaf children struggle to communicate with their immediate family and develop language slower than their hearing peers.¹

The hearing world sets a normative standard of communication that often fails to accommodate the needs of those who don’t conform to the prevailing paradigm. Deaf communication is not homogeneous and varies depending on the individual concerned and the type of deafness they have.² For people born deaf, British Sign Language (BSL) is typically their first language and signifies membership of a distinctive community and cultural minority.³

For deaf BSL users, the world is primarily visual and not verbal; as such⁴, they have a different cultural reference point when it comes to communication, and experience barriers in their everyday interactions whether its buying groceries in the local supermarket or making themselves understood at a doctors appointment⁵ A survey undertaken by the deaf charity Action on Hearing Loss found that approximately two-thirds (68%) agreed they sometimes felt isolated at work because of their hearing loss.⁵

BSL is an important aspect of deaf culture and provides a sense of shared experience, history and cultural identity for the deaf community.⁶ There are around 150,000 BSL users in the UK; 87,000 are deaf and use BSL as their first language.⁷ As a language, BSL is as indigenous to the British Isles as English and has a rich cultural history dating back hundreds of years.

British Sign Language: A cultural history  

A native visual language to the UK with a distinctive grammar and syntax⁸, BSL uses gestures of facial expression for enhanced meaning⁹. Contrary to some people’s misconceptions, it is not merely a representation of the English language using the hands and face; it is unique in its own right.¹⁰

There is no universal Esperanto-style sign language, as it is the product of the unique circumstances of individual deaf communities.¹¹ For example, BSL involves signing with two hands, whereas American Sign Language is one-handed. BSL is a unique creation of the British Deaf community and contains regional variations and dialects that you would see in other languages.¹¹ Due to Britain’s post-colonial ties, there are also similar versions of sign language practised in Australia, New Zealand, and Malta.¹²

As with many minority languages, it has often been neglected and overlooked as the communities it presents have been subject to historic discrimination. The use of sign language in the UK can be traced back to the 16th century¹³ and was even documented by the renowned diarist Samuel Pepys in 1666.¹⁴

Sir John Gaudy (1639-1708) and Framlingham Gaudy (1642-1673) are the first Deaf people in the UK reported to have been educated using the manual alphabet and signs, which is an early precursor to the development of modern sign language.¹³ The use of sign language as a culturally distinctive method of communication and learning was reinforced by the publication of Digiti Lingua in 1698 by an anonymous Deaf author, containing manual alphabet charts, which laid the foundations for BSL’s two-handed alphabet that is used today.¹³

However, sign language was not the only method of communication taught by deaf people during this period. Alexander Popham (1649-1708) is the first Deaf person in the UK recorded to have been taught by the oral method, which focuses on mimicking the lip movements and speech patterns of hearing people.¹³ The division between the manual method based on sign language and the oral method of communication sparked a cultural war that would dominate the politics of deaf communication in the 19th century.¹³ 

A culture silenced: communication discrimination in early years of education

A crucial factor in communication discrimination that deaf people experienced was the adoption of the oral method of education in schools in the 19th century.¹³ This essential involved deaf people being taught to mimic hearing people’s mouth and lip movements and repeating verbal information by reading speech cues.¹⁵ It focused on teaching deaf people to speak instead of sign. In essence, this was an attempt to train deaf children to speak and lip-read so that they could fit into the hearing world. In practice, it ended up being a suppression of the culture that failed to respect and validate the differential nature of deaf communication. This left deaf children feeling lonely and isolated, and impacted their educational performance.¹⁶

Consequently, an educational tug of war took place between the educational establishment, favouring the oral method, and the deaf community, who preferred the manual method focussed on sign language. A key flashpoint came at the Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf in Milan in 1880.¹³ This now infamous event involved the passing of several resolutions that branded sign language inferior to oralism and should be banned.¹³

This led to the widespread suppression of sign language in many Deaf schools worldwide and involved the imposition of a false normative standard of communication on the deaf community. As a result, the deaf community were deprived of their cultural and intellectual heritage from an early age. This continued in the British education system in the Elementary Education (Deaf and Blind Children) Act passed in 1893, leading to an era of Oralism in British Deaf schools.¹³ The oral method was gradually phased out as sign language became more recognised and respected as a legitimate communication method in the 20^th century. The latter half of the 20^th century and the early part of the 21^st century saw a significant shift in the legislative and societal recognition of sign language.

Changing times: The growing recognition of BSL

The 20^th century saw gradual and incremental improvements in the cultural recognition of sign language. In 1979 The Warnock report recommended the inclusion of deaf children within mainstream education, creating a policy shift in the integration of the language into wider society.¹³ Two years later, in 1981, BBC See Hear a magazine style TV programme for the deaf and hard of hearing was launched, making television a more accessible cultural experience to the deaf community for the first time.¹³ 

These cultural shifts also began to receive legislative recognition with the Disability Discrimination Act in 1995¹³, followed by the Equality Act in 2010, recognising deafness as a protected characteristic.¹⁷ While the British Government officially recognised BSL in 2003¹³, it did not receive legislative recognition until much later.

Scotland initially led the way with The British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015, which promoted and raised awareness of the use of BSL in Scotland by requiring certain authorities to develop BSL plans.¹⁸ This was followed seven years later by the passing of the British Sign Language Act in 2022.¹⁹ The act places a duty on the Secretary of State at the Department of Work and Pensions to issue guidance to departments on promoting and facilitating BSL, developed in collaboration with signers and the deaf community.¹⁹ This landmark legislation is a historic moment for the recognition of BSL, which is hoped will deliver a sea change for the deaf community’s ability to access public services. Although legislative backing is important in improving public service access for deaf people, wider cultural recognition has a vital role in normalising sign language as a form of communication.

A pop cultural breakthrough

The last few years have seen the wider pop cultural recognition of sign language and deaf communication issues continue to grow and flourish. The Oscar-winning film CODA tells the story of a hearing child’s relationship with her deaf family and cultural landmarks like this have started to reshape the narrative around deaf awareness of deaf communication, bringing the issue to a wider audience.

The Eastenders actress Rose Ayling-Ellis’ success in BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing, provided a symbolically important moment for the mainstream cross-over of deaf issues. Being the series’ first deaf BSL user contestant and ultimate winner of the hit TV show in 2021 was a remarkable achievement. The now famous silent dance segment with her partner Giovanni Pernice made waves across the mainstream media. This emotional segment helped the British public connect to the sense of isolation and separateness that deaf people experience living in a hearing world every day. There is an opportunity to harness the power of this recent pop cultural breakthrough to spark a wider conversation about deaf awareness and deaf communication.

Getting deaf aware: top communication tips

Creating a more inclusive communication environment for deaf people is a long-term challenge that requires structural, systemic and cultural change. However, there are small changes we can all make to improve deaf people’s everyday communication experiences. 

• Rephrase it, don’t just repeat it – Words that appear the same on the lips are often different in spoken English, such as “mother, other, brother”. Saying the same thing differently can often help make things clearer for a deaf person relying on lip reading.  
• Use natural lip movements – Deaf people who rely on lip reading often struggle when people exaggerate their mouth movements, as this distorts the natural flow of their speech, reducing their understanding and comprehension.  
• Face deaf people directly – Speaking to a deaf person directly, face to face, and not via their interpreter, is very important, as this can be perceived as disrespectful. Avoiding bad habits like looking at your phone, computer screen or covering your mouth can also help facilitate effective communication. Good eye contact is also important.  
• Cut out the background noise – People with limited hearing can struggle to distinguish spoken English from wider background sounds. Moving to a quiet place without wooden, tiled and laminate flooring can often help. 
• Use notes and diagrams – Using written notes or diagrams to illustrate the key points can improve communication with a deaf person, if you have difficulty explaining something. However, for some deaf people, English is their second language, so writing information down won’t be helpful for everyone8,9.   
• Get a BSL interpreter – People should not use a friend or family member to interpret for a deaf person. They will not know technical or medical jargon or be trained to interpret certain information. Still, most importantly, the deaf person will have no independence or privacy should a friend or family member accompanies them.

Following these communication tips can make a big difference to the everyday communication experiences of deaf people and help break down the communication barriers. It’s time we all became more deaf-aware and worked together to end the communication divide.  

In addition to BSL communication tips, here are 26 top resources for learning American Sign Language (ASL)

References