28th June - 4th July 2010 is Deaf Awareness Week
when organisations working with deaf people across the country are
inviting everyone to 'Look At Me'.
The theme aims to improve understanding of the different types
of deafness by highlighting the many different methods of
communication used by deaf, deafened, deafblind and hard of hearing
people, such as sign language and lipreading.
There are many ways that you can support and
celebrate Deaf Awareness Week in the classroom, for example you
could:
- Hold a sponsored silence
- Learn to say your name and
greet each other in British Sign Language
- Hold your school assembly in
mime
- Invite someone from your local
deaf organisation to come and talk to students
There is also a helpful guide to Deaf
Awareness Week activities for children, available as either a PDF
or Word document download from
the Deaf Council website.
When you consider that nearly 15% of the
population has some degree of deafness it is likely that at some
point your school, business or community group will be affected by
it. Being aware of the needs of deaf people can help you to
communicate more effectively, in just the same way as it is
important to learn a foreign language to communicate more
effectively with foreign speakers.
For more information please visit the Deaf
Awareness Week website.