大象传媒

Tip five. I want to talk about deaf people. Maybe you've met a deaf person in the past, and I think the most important thing to remember is that all deaf people are not the same. They are unique individuals. Same as you hearing people, you're all individual and unique. Don't think all deaf people just can't hear anything at all. They not only hear differently or don't hear differently, they use their language differently. Some deaf people sign, fully sign BSL, and some deaf people might not sign at all and that's because they may live or have grown up in different places. We're not all in the same boat. We are a variety, but we do face the same barriers. Some people are very passive, and some deaf people are very assertive, like me. Because I've learnt that my culture, well, my family are hearing, so I grew up in a hearing family. They didn't learn sign language. In the old days we weren't allowed to sign. It was discouraged. So my family were fantastic, a beautiful, wonderful family. And as I grew up, I really realized I had a great family. But I see other deaf people, and they don't have any sign language in their family. And I feel very passionate about that for them, because I feel it's so important. I really want people to come together. And actually here we do Family Sign Language Weekends at the Deaf Academy. It's a free course that we offer to educate people and teach people about BSL because I think every deaf child has a right to their language. It's not about BSL or English. It's being bilingual. It's offering them that language and those options. Everyone should learn BSL. It doesn't matter if people don't use it. Just learn it because you have the power to work together with the deaf community, to engage with the deaf community, and we can change the world to make it a richer place for deaf people to live. You know, some people can be really timid. You don't need to be like that. We don't want your help. We want you to become deaf allies. We want you to work together with the deaf community to change the world for future generations of deaf people.