Deaf Awareness Week 2019 – Doing your bit

Deaf Awareness Week (DAW) is a unique campaign in which organisations up and down the country strives to participate in, and in doing so can promote their own work within the broad spectrum of deafness – a fine example of organisations collaborating and working in harmony to support a joint campaign.

The History

Founded in 1993, the UK Council of Deafness and the national umbrella organisation for charities working in the field of deafness collaborated to co-ordinate Deaf Awareness Week. DAW aims to not only raise awareness of a huge range of local organisations that support deaf people and their families but works hard to encourage social inclusion in the workplace and wider community.

In the UK alone statistics show that 1 in 6 are deaf or hard of hearing, making Deaf Awareness Week imperative in supporting and promoting all aspects of deafness.

The Event

6th – 12th May 2019.

Coordinated annually, Deaf Awareness Week focuses on a different theme each year, with emphasis this year on ‘celebrating role models’.

This main theme encompasses a specific theme for each day of the week, allowing organisations to publicise their role models in each sector to raise as much awareness as possible:

Monday – Education/Employment
Tuesday – Health
Wednesday – Sport
Thursday – Entertainment
Friday – Family/Youth
Saturday – Technology
Sunday – Politics

Doing our bit

Here at Boomerang Education we aim to support deafness not only during Deaf Awareness Week, but throughout the rest of the year.

As a Hampshire based supplier of school products, Boomerang Education saw an opportunity to support deafness, specifically in young children, via means of a popular school product – school planners.

Ever since our first Primary school planner, Boomerang Education have ensured that all planners have included valuable content such as The British Sign Language Alphabet, in order to provide deaf and able-hearing people with the vital information they need to help encourage and promote social inclusion.

British Sign Language

British Sign Language (BSL) is a vital means of communication using gestures, facial expressions and body language and when used can often bridge the communications gap between deaf and able hearing people.

Much like the English Language, BSL has its own grammatical structure and syntax and if the preferred language of around 145,000 people in the UK alone.

How YOU can help

If you wish to help improve the understanding of all types of deafness, and help further develop communication methods, you can make a donation on the official Deaf Council website.

Alternative, you can Tweet us at @BoomEdLtd, and let us know how you’re finding our ‘Finger Spelling’ spread in our 2019/20 Primary school planners!

To find out more about our school planners, or to request a quote please contact our sales team on 01252 368 328 or email us at info@boomerang-ed.com.