Anyone who works with deaf customers or colleagues and would like to understand how to communicate effectively and feel more confident when dealing with deaf and hard of hearing people.
This course is particularly aimed at any frontline or customer service staff who deal with the public on a day to day basis, and who will need to provide the same high quality service to deaf and hearing impaired clients.
1 in 7 people in the UK have a hearing loss of some degree – all requiring a change in the way people communicate with them.
The Disability Discrimination Act and more recently, the Equality Act 2010, have had enormous implications for employers and staff at all levels of customer facing organisations - requiring 'reasonable adjustment' to the needs of service users, whether the service is provided free or for a cost.
Do your frontline staff know how to deal confidently with deaf, blind and other disabled customers? Would your call centre staff feel able to assist customers with communication impairments?
If not, you could be in breach of the DDA or Equality Act 2010.
Deafness is a hidden disability - a small number of the 9 million use BSL – the rest rely on a combination of lipreading and other communication methods. The Equality Act makes is clear that reasonable adjustments must be made to provide access to people with disabilities. Deaf awareness is therefore vital for anyone working with the public to ensure good communication and so people know how to make adjustments to their environment and provide access to people with a hearing loss – whatever degree of loss that may be.
Do you or your staff know the answers to the following, for your customer facing organisation?
- Do you have/use a loop system – do you know how it works?
- Do you have colleagues or friends with a hearing loss?
- Are you and your colleagues easily lipreadable?
- Do you want to make your work environment and products or services more accessible to those with a hearing loss?
If the answer is no, this course can be the ideal starting point.
The course will teach you and your staff about deafness – what it is, the different types of hearing loss, different groups of deaf people, terminology, technology – and how to use a variety of methods to help you communicate with anybody with a hearing loss. We also explain technology like loop systems, text phones, and phone–relay services.
It will also help you and your staff become ‘deaf aware’ and gain a basic knowledge of deafness and communication skills which can be used with deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind people. You will also learn some basic signs and fingerspelling to assist communication with BSL users.
- Learning about different groups of deaf people, appropriate terminology and the communication methods used by these groups
- Learning about different types of deafness and how these affect communication
- Becoming aware of different technical aids used by deaf people and how to use language service professionals, for example interpreters
- Developing practical communication skills to use with a variety of deaf and hard of hearing people
- Understanding the advantages and limitations of hearing aids and lipreading
- Learning to use the fingerspelling alphabet and some basic signs to communicate with a Deaf BSL user