Missing the start or end of an exam because you cannot hear the invigilator is not a concern for the majority of young people. But for deaf teenagers, this and other unforeseen situations can cause anxiety during exam time.
To help deaf young people feel confident about exams and career choices, a group of 15 deaf teenagers has developed three animations to portray issues that affect their education.
Created by the National Deaf Children’s Society’s (NDCS) Young People’s Advisory Board, the three films raise awareness of issues connected to exams, going to college and taking on an apprenticeship.
The group of 12- to 18-year-olds from across the UK worked together on the project for eight months. “Often deaf children and young people are not aware of what support they are entitled to, and even if they have very high aspirations for themselves, many lack confidence that they will find employment when they are older,” says Lucy Read, head of children and young people’s participation at the NDCS.
“This is true for many young people at the moment, but for deaf young people there’s an additional worry of the support they might need within college, university and the working environment.”
Animation was chosen as the best medium for the messages that the group wanted to communicate, because deaf young people can find large amounts of reading off-putting. “Quite often, really heavy text isn’t appropriate for our audience,” says Read. “Most hearing children probably wouldn’t want to receive information in that way either.”
A video production agency worked with the advisory board to review storyboards and support the development of the animations. Each animation explains in simple terms what support is available to deaf children, for example, that they have a right to request extra time during exams or a specialist deaf teacher at college.
Apprenticeships
Fraser Gunn, 17 and a member of the advisory board, used his experiences of choosing to do an apprenticeship to shape the animations. “I think it would be useful to have more information about apprenticeships because there can be a lot of pressure from schools to apply to college and university, but this route isn’t for everyone,” he says. “As a deaf person going to do an apprenticeship I was offered support, but I decided I wanted to do this on my own. College was a different story. I felt I could have done with someone to help me with notes but that didn’t really happen.”
The final animations were launched this week on the NDCS website, buzz.org.uk/myfuture, available both in English and British Sign Language versions.
“They will encourage professionals and careers advisers to inspire deaf children and young people about what they can do, and build up their knowledge and understanding about their rights on access to exams,” says Read.
