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Having your say: Evidence from families published by two parliamentary inquiries

Published Date: 10 Jun 2020
Photo: Sally Etchells is Government Relations and Partnerships Advisor for the National Deaf Children's Society

At the start of the lockdown, two Westminster parliamentary committees announced major inquiries into the impact of Covid-19. Both the Women and Equalities Select Committee and the Education Select Committee (England focused) wanted to know about the impact of the lockdown on deaf children and young people.

We wanted to make sure our evidence for these inquiries was based entirely on the experiences of deaf children, young people and their families. So we asked you what you thought. Over 150 families of deaf children responded to our survey and told us about their experiences. We also spoke to deaf young people on our Young People’s Advisory Board about how the lockdown was affecting their lives.

Some of the key findings were:-

  • Some deaf children and young people were missing out on their usual specialist support and therapies, such as from Teachers of the Deaf, communication support workers and speech and language therapists.
  • Many deaf children and young people weren’t able to access audiology appointments and were having issues with their hearing aids.
  • There were issues with being able to access online learning at home due to, for example, a lack of subtitles and British Sign Language translations.

We are campaigning to improve these things and raising the issues with the Government.

Our written evidence to both inquiries has now been published and you can have a read of this here-

Education Committee evidence – https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/5701/pdf/

Women and Equalities Committee evidence - https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/2818/pdf/

Thank you to everyone who has told us about their experiences of support for deaf children during lockdown. You can view a video from deaf young people about their education in lockdown here:

You can continue telling us what’s happening by emailing [email protected]. If you feel like you need support or advice, you can contact our free Helpline on 0808 800 8880 or [email protected]