Deaf awareness in emergency preparedness and response.
One of the themes of our recent Capability Building Event was ‘The impact of Emergencies on Deaf and Hard of Hearing Communities’. It is thought that between 11 and 12 million people in the UK have some form of hearing loss, with between 900,000 and 1.2 million of these people being severely or profoundly deaf, and around 50,000 children also being deaf. It is therefore imperative that, as the Emergencies Partnership, we reflect on how inclusive our preparedness planning is by looking at how people who are deaf or hard of hearing have been affected by previous emergencies and considering how they could be impacted in the future.
The deaf community is among a number of groups who have been disproportionately impacted by emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking about this, Roger Wicks, Associate Director for Policy and Campaigns at national hearing loss charity, RNID, said, “Many deaf people and people with hearing loss were not clinically vulnerable, but didn’t have access to public health information because it wasn’t delivered in an accessible way. This was especially true for BSL (British Sign Language) users, who missed out on essential public health messages which were not translated, putting them at greater risk.” Many also raised concerns around mask-wearing during the pandemic. People with hearing loss often rely on facial expressions and lip-reading to interact with other members of the public, therefore, standard masks led to many in the deaf community feeling isolated. In June, the National Deaf Children’s Society urged the NHS to use transparent face masks to avoid obscuring facial cues, as this could “transform the healthcare experience for many deaf patients.”
With British Sign Language (BSL) set to become an officially recognised language in England, Wales, and Scotland in the BSL Act, we need to start considering how we can make our work more accessible. The BSL Act requires Government to report on the “promotion and facilitation of the use of BSL across Government departments,” consequently, we should also incorporate BSL, and subtitles and closed captions, into our work. Public health information, such as that during the pandemic which many deaf and hard of hearing people struggled to access, should be made available for all in both the written form and BSL, as these forms are not interchangeable for everyone.
Sign Language is most used by people who are Deaf — people who have been Deaf all their lives (capital D) or from before they could speak — with this their first language, whereas English is more of a second language, which is why they can find understanding complex written messages difficult. The launch of 999 BSL last month, the UK’s first Emergency Video Relay Service in British Sign Language (BSL), was an incredible moment for the deaf community. The new service is more efficient, practical, and empowering than previous options in emergencies, with the app and website allowing deaf and hard of hearing people to contact the police, ambulance, fire, and coastguard services by being connected to a BSL interpreter who then relays the information to a 999 operator. Developments such as 999 BSL allow the deaf community to be directly involved in emergency response.
Our Capability Building Event explored the diverse needs of deaf people and those with hearing loss in emergencies, challenging assumptions. We were joined by Herbert Klein, Deaf Services Advisor and Disaster Risk Reduction Expert at the World Federation of the Deaf, who provided us all with a better understanding of the challenges faced by those who are deaf, both in emergencies, and when communicating in everyday life. Stacey Teece from Community Resource Shropshire also joined us, as she reflected on a summary and recommendations from a report they carried out into the impact of COVID-19 on deaf communities in Shropshire. We hope both focusses raised awareness of considerations and adjustments needed to emergency preparedness and response to reduce the disproportionate impacts.
