The importance of being understood - let your hands do the talking

Stratford-on-Avon District Council has always prided itself on being accessible to the community, as serving and communicating to the public is of high priority.  

19 of the District Council's staff recently passed an 8 week in-house training course across a range of service areas, in British Sign Language. This course resulted in the achievement of an Open College Network Accreditation Qualification, which is in line with the Council's Equality and Diversity Scheme.  

Front facing customer service staff are now trained to communicate with hard of hearing people through sign language, together with the provision of:
·         A mini-com line allowing the District Council to take typetalk calls from deaf and speech impaired people.  Typetalk is a relay service for people with communication difficulties, the number for which is; 01789 260747.
·         A portable hearing loop on reception  

There are estimated to be about 9 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK. About 698,000 of these are severely or profoundly deaf. 450,000 severely or profoundly deaf people cannot hear well enough to use a voice telephone, even with equipment to make it louder.  

2% of young adults and 55% of people over 60 are deaf or hard of hearing. Stratford is 55th out of 408 local authorities with the highest number of residents over 60.  

Current estimates suggest 50,000 who are born deaf or are deafened early in life use British sign language to communicate.