North Wales MS and Chair of the Cross Party Group on Deaf Issues, Mark Isherwood, has tabled a Statement of Opinion in the Senedd to coincide with Deaf Awareness Week, highlighting the challenges many young people face due to a lack of deaf awareness and calling for teachers across Wales to be encouraged to undertake deaf awareness training.
Deaf Awareness Week will take place from 2 to 8 May 2022 and this year the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) is using the week to celebrate deafness.
The charity’s Youth Advisory Board have been hard at work promoting their petition on Change.org, calling for compulsory deaf awareness training for all teachers to be introduced.
In support of the young campaigners, and to coincide with Deaf Awareness Week, Mr Isherwood has tabled the following Statement of Opinion in the Senedd:
This Senedd:
1. Notes that it is Deaf Awareness Week.
2. Understands that many deaf young people face challenges due to a lack of deaf awareness.
3. Commends the National Deaf Children’s Society’s Youth Advisory Board (including Welsh members Tegan, Rhys and Miriam), on its petition calling for deaf awareness training for all teachers, which is now at around fifty thousand signatures.
4. Calls for teachers across Wales to be encouraged to undertake deaf awareness training.
Mr Isherwood, who has long championed the needs of deaf people and is himself a hearing aid wearer, said:
“I commend these young people on being so proactive and starting this petition, which already has almost 50,000 signatures. They are worried that many mainstream teachers don't know enough about deaf awareness and how best to support deaf children in class. They have said this stops them from achieving as well as their hearing friends and makes many of them feel isolated and lonely in class.
“As a deaf 16-year-old said: “Some teachers know exactly what to do to help me but there are some that don’t and are completely clueless about my struggles”.
“Despite years of calls for action to address the attainment gap, deaf school children are still being left behind, this needs to change.”
Anyone wishing to sign the petition can do so by clicking on the following link: Petition · Introduce compulsory deaf awareness training for all teachers · Change.org