The British Deaf Association has been awarded a grant of £60,000 to help fund sign-language videos to help deaf people access vital services.
The grant will fund the production of 240 sign-language videos which aim to help deaf people access services ranging from health matters through to legal and financial advice.
The British Deaf will produce the videos and distribute them online to more than 20,000 deaf people who are part of the estimated 87,000 people who use British Sign Language (BSL) in the UK. More than 11,000 of these are in London.
The videos are being created in response to surveys of deaf people which identified the many difficulties that they face (accessing healthcare, getting legal and financial advice, contacting their local authority or getting news and information on important topics and debates) and their preferences for getting information.
Many deaf people have poor literacy skills in written English and surveys show overwhelming support for the use of BSL as the preferred way to access information.
Damian Barry, Director of Community Development and Operations at the British Deaf Association, said:
We are very grateful to London Freemasons for their generous grant, which will allow us to help thousands of deaf people right across the country to access vital information and services that hearing people take for granted.
Trevor Koschalka from London Freemasons said:
“We are very pleased to be able to help the British Deaf Association with these videos which will help many thousands of deaf people overcome the widespread barriers to accessing services they experience in their everyday lives.”
About the British Deaf Association
The BDA is the UK’s leading membership organisation and registered charity run by Deaf people for Deaf people. The BDA delivers a range of services to achieve its aims of empowering Deaf people to overcome difficulties that they face on a daily basis.
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