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.