I just communicate differently

I recently had the fantastic opportunity of attending a Deaf Awareness session at our White City office. The session was hosted by Marcel Hirshman, a deaf freelance trainer, who has delivered training to a wide range of clients from the arts, private sector, government and universities.

With nearly nine million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK, Marcel’s aim was to help us realise how we those who can hear can communicate more confidently with deaf people.

Marcel conducted the session with no interpreter and did a great job teaching us about what deafness means in practice and gave us hints and practical tips on what works best. It was particularly relevant to members of BBC Workplace as one of our colleagues Meera Modi is deaf and I was struck by how she approaches life as she says “I just communicate differently!”

The presentation also made me appreciate the obstacles and challenges encountered by a deaf person that those who are able to hear might not always consider, for example, here are a few tips for how to have better communication:

 - Keep eye contact - when talking, and when the deaf person is signing, face the deaf person not the interpreter
 - Speak one at a time
 - If demonstrating something with actions, don’t talk at the same time
 - Speak clearly but not loud and not too slowly
 - Don’t talk over the deaf person as if they weren’t there

Above all, don’t give up! If you are finding it difficult to communicate a word or sentence, persevere and use other communication support if needed, for example, if you are stuck over communicating one word, write it down.

For more information, Marcel can be contacted by email - [email protected].