A group of deaf students from the Lister Community School in Plaistow have launched new resources to help Newham’s buses and emergency services be more deaf aware, thanks to a grant from the National Deaf Children’s Society.
The project was the brainchild of six deaf students: Nathan Graham-Oshinowo, 12, Delali Latzoo, 13, Claudia Nechita, 12, Samit Noor, 13, Nadia Patwary, 14, and Rayyan Shahid, 11, who all attend Lister Community School.
The group wants to show hearing people how to communicate more quickly and effectively with deaf people in Newham. They are starting with the bus service because they rely on bus drivers to help them get where they want to go. The group will then move on to working with the police, ambulance and fire services because good communication is vital if ever they are called upon to help.
The inspiration for the group’s project came from the experience of a deaf friend of Nadia, who kept missing her stop on the borough’s buses because she couldn’t hear the driver.
After a visit to the school by the National Deaf Children’s Society’s Roadshow in May 2019, the students secured a grant of £500 from the charity’s Make a Change Fund, enabling them to realise their plans.
The group now have the green light to film a deaf awareness video for Newham’s bus drivers, as well as one each for the borough’s police, ambulance and fire services, helping these services tackle some of the issues they may encounter when communicating with deaf people going about their daily lives as well as at times of emergency.
Next month the group will film their video for bus drivers and are hopeful of finishing all four videos in the coming months.
Team member Nadia said:
“Quite a lot of the time I feel frustrated when I am trying to hear what other people are saying and I don’t understand. I hope we can make people more deaf aware so that they know lots of good ways to communicate with us.”
