Deaf Awareness Week – What can you do in the classroom?

Did you know that over 18 million people (approximately 1 in 3 adults) in the UK alone are deaf or have hearing loss? The 4th-10th May is Deaf Awareness Week, and we wanted to give you some inspiration on how you can raise awareness in your classroom as well as educate and empower your students. 

If you have hard of hearing/deaf students, it’s even more important to raise awareness and ensure that you’re creating a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment for all.  

What can you do in the classroom this week for Deaf Awareness Week?

Give a talk on what life can be like for deaf people

It’s important that you’re raising awareness and educating students on what isn’t common knowledge. Some ideas could be:

• A presentation showing the ‘day in the life’ of a deaf person: Talk about all of the things that a deaf person has to think about on a day-to-day basis. Lip-reading to be able to understand what someone is saying, communicating with people who don’t know sign language, being unable to hear things such as cars or buses when crossing the road. Also, struggling to keep up in school or work if accommodations aren’t made to support their education.
• Break down different types of hearing problems: It can be easy to assume that everybody who is deaf needs sign language or everybody who is deaf cannot hear things. Break down for your students the different types of hearing problems and what solutions are on offer, as well as how you can support someone with each issue should you encounter them at school or later on in life.
• Deaf people in the media: Especially with younger students, you want to ensure that they can make a connection with the theory you’re teaching them in comparison to real life. If you can find relatable individuals in the media to show representation, then please do this.

Sign language phrases each day

Sign language is an invaluable skill that equips individuals with the ability to communicate with those who are hard of hearing or completely deaf. 

Teaching your class useful sign language phrases such as, “Hello, my name is X” or “How are you?” and “It’s nice to meet you” can equip them with the ability to have a basic conversation with someone who uses sign language as their primary method of communication. It’s important to also teach them the answers that can be given to those questions, so try and stagger your sign language phrases throughout the week and give students time to practise with one another. 

You could even print out a ‘cheat sheet’ of sign language and assign ‘sign language hour’ where students can only communicate in sign language with one another. Not only will this improve their ability to learn sign language, but it will also demonstrate how difficult it can be when you can’t communicate with your words!

Finally, test your students!

At the end of the week, depending on the age range of your class, you can also give them a quiz to find out how much they have learned/retained during the week. You can either give them your own personalised quiz, or use one provided here by the NDCS. Additionally, you can also provide prizes for the winners to incentivise students to want to learn more during deaf awareness week.

This week is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the importance of inclusivity, education, and compassion – don’t let your students miss out!

Resources for teachers:

Health Assured

NDCS.org

Techlearning