Supporting deaf children during the pandemic

A survey by the National Deaf Children’s Society revealed that 60 per cent of deaf young people said their mental health had suffered during the first lockdown. At every stage of restrictions and subsequent easing, new challenges arose for the deaf community, especially across education. As the community was kept apart, many deaf young people felt isolated from those that understood them best. Their calls for accessible teaching, guidance on masks and access to government briefings went unheard.

I was 17 when the pandemic started. ‘Four weeks off school’ we all thought. I’m now 19 and in my first year of university. I’m proud to have made it, but the past two years have highlighted to me just how important good deaf awareness and access is; not only to understand and be involved, but for my mental health. My desperate emails and calls for subtitles, access and clarifications of misunderstood content were met by teachers saying they were trying as hard as they could. I felt defeated. Never mind I thought, we will be going back to the classroom soon…but little did I anticipate this would be a masked environment.

My main method of communication in sixth form was speech and lipreading, so walking into a masked classroom caused huge anxiety for me. I used technology to try to support my hearing, but looking back I almost wish I hadn’t. Turning my hearing aids up so loud with additional roger microphones left me exhausted. Deaf people who use hearing devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants don’t hear in the same way as a hearing person would and there is often a lot of background noise which hearing aids aren’t able to filter out. It was a catch 22 situation. Every day I was exhausted from the intense concentration, working to fill in the gaps and the panic of feeling behind in my A-levels, which were being assessed in just a matter of weeks. I simply did not have the energy levels left to revise and study as I wanted to. I felt I was letting myself down.

On paper it may appear that education was made accessible. Those with Education Health and Care Plans were legally still allowed to be in school and theoretically there is a government exemption for anyone talking to someone who needs to be able to lipread when it comes to masks. However, this was far from my reality. The issue with masks is complex and many deaf people who are clinically vulnerable to Covid felt uneasy about people taking their masks down to allow them to lipread, or even just uneasy asking strangers to do it.

My situation has in actual fact flipped and online learning at university can sometimes be more accessible. This is because I have been able to access British Sign Language interpreters, but there is limited availability and so it is often easier to source an interpreter for remote work. What this demonstrates is how the needs of deaf young people are unique but also evolving in an ever-changing situation. This is why it is paramount that deaf young people are consulted at every stage of these changing situations.

What remains consistent is the additional burden this places on deaf young people. A burden that without the right support leads to significant isolation and loneliness. Trying to navigate inaccessible systems is stressful and tiresome, but with weaker links to your community, such as during lockdowns, it’s even harder. The hearing world must listen to the needs of the deaf community and we all should remember the pandemic has affected everyone, some in more hidden ways than others.

Kirsty, 19, from St Alban’s, is moderately deaf and wears hearing aids