Deaf Aware Sheffield

Deafness isn’t a barrier, a lack of awareness is 

At Citizens Advice Sheffield we believe that everyone in our city deserves equal access to the support and services they need. However, for our local Deaf community, access is too often falling short.

Everyday our Deaf Advice service helps people with a range of issues, from housing and benefits to debt and finances. That’s what we’re here to do. But increasingly we are seeing people who are struggling to manage because essential public services are excluding them by not booking British Sign Language interpreters, leaving them to rely on friends, family and our advisors to translate often sensitive and private information. 

This should not be happening. The Equality Act 2010 sets out that public services must make reasonable adjustments to ensure Deaf people can fully understand and access support available. 

As services across our city are stretched, operating on tighter budgets while demand increases, many of the Deaf people we support are being left behind. Access is getting worse and we need to act together to solve this.

We are proud to launch Deaf Aware Sheffield, a campaign dedicated to breaking down the systemic communication barriers that leave Deaf residents excluded from essential services like healthcare, policing, and local government services.

The Data

Our research into local British Sign Language (BSL) provision, as well as looking at who we help and with what has shown us some startling facts. 

The data from our own advice centers shows:

• 4.5 issues: The average number of issues for a non-deaf client.
• 15 issues: The average number of issues for a Deaf client.

This means that Deaf residents are coming to us with three times as many problems as non-deaf clients. Many of these issues aren’t caused by deafness itself, but by a communication failure, such as a GP surgery failing to book an interpreter or a service relying on written English for a BSL user who may have different literacy levels. 

A single appointment where a BSL interpreter isn’t booked can create multiple issues for a Deaf person, including missed information, misunderstandings, complaints and stress. 

We have also seen how the amount of BSL interpreters available in the region has gone down. There is no wonder when local courses have been cut and the financial barrier to entry for interpreters is high. This has also lead to interpreter costs going up for organisations and the Deaf people wishing to book them.

Society is the Barrier

At Citizens Advice Sheffield we follow the Social Model of Disability. This means we believe people are disabled by the barriers present in society, like a lack of BSL interpreters or poor staff training, not by their impairment.

“We see every day how the system fails our community. Whether it’s a failure to book an interpreter for a medical appointment or lack of accessible policing, these aren’t just ‘inconveniences’; they are breaches of legal rights.” — Kate Bushen, Service Manager at Citizens Advice Sheffield

But, what can we do about it?

We don’t want to just highlight this problem; we want to find solutions. Deaf Aware Sheffield is calling on the South Yorkshire Mayor, NHS leadership, and local MPs and councillors to commit to four key changes:

1. Invest in BSL Training: We need the South Yorkshire Mayor to use the Adult Education Budget to fund more BSL courses. A shortage of qualified interpreters in South Yorkshire is creating a crisis of accessibility.
2. Ensure Legal Compliance: The NHS must follow the Accessible Information Standard, and all organisations must uphold the Equality Act by providing BSL interpretation when requested.
3. Strengthen Legislation: We are calling on MPs to update and strengthen the laws that protect Deaf people to make them more easily enforceable.
4. Raise Awareness: We want local businesses and services to invest in Deaf awareness training for frontline staff, to make our city more Deaf friendly.

How You Can Help

You can support the campaign by:

• Spreading the word about the barriers the Deaf community faces.
• Encouraging your workplace to seek out Deaf awareness training.
• Advocating for BSL access whenever you see a service falling short.
• Ask our local political leaders to meet with Citizens Advice Sheffield to learn more about the issues affecting our Deaf community

“Deaf people can do anything except hear”

Media Contact: For more information on the campaign or to arrange an interview, please contact Sophie Wilson, Social Policy and Involvement Manager, at sophie.wilson@citizensadvicesheffield.org.uk