Deaf Awareness Week 2023

That's why we have decided to focus on providing British Sign Language (BSL) interpreted and captioned events, workshops and screenings, as well as building connections with local Deaf community groups.

Over the past year, we have built up connections with over 10 new Deaf community groups, including: Deafinitely Independent, Coventry Deaf Association, and Nottingham Deaf Society. 

We have also provided live BSL interpretation and captioning for events, and BSL gallery tours and BSL videos advertising different aspects of our programme and services in our venue with local Deaf Artist, Olivier Jamin. 

Here’s some feedback from people that came to his last tours:

To ensure we are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills, we have undergone Deaf awareness training provided by BID, a leading Deaf-led organization that provides training and consultancy services to improve accessibility and inclusion for Deaf people. 

This training covered topics such as different types of deafness and hearing loss, different communication methods, barriers experienced by Deaf people, and how to overcome these barriers.

Each season we are committed to producing our BSL interpreted videos to advertise BSL interpreted events and captioned cinema screenings, making the information more accessible to the Deaf community. 

We believe that this is a significant step towards greater accessibility, inclusivity, and awareness of the needs of the Deaf community.

We are proud of the progress we have made in this area, and we are committed to continuing to improve our accessibility and inclusivity and learning from our local communities. 

We're always open to new ideas to improve, if you have a suggestion please feel free to get in touch with us.

Becca Randle

Audience Development Officer