Disability Awareness Sunday to focus on deafness and hearing loss
The third Sunday of November is designated Disability Awareness Sunday in the Church of Ireland. This year it falls on Sunday 17 November and the focus for 2013 is on raising awareness around deafness and hearing loss alongside considering disabilities of every type at all times of the year. This November, the Church’s Working Group on Disability wishes to encourage churches to consider how to help deaf people and people with hearing loss to participate fully in parish life and worship.
The chairperson of the Working Group on Disability, the Revd Jennifer McWhirter, has compiled some helpful information (downloadable below) in order to provide more general knowledge of this issue. Levels of deafness vary from mild to moderate to severe and profound deafness, and statistics reveal that in the UK one in six of the population is deaf and 8.3 million people are hard of hearing while in the Republic of Ireland there are 5,000 profoundly deaf sign language users and 225,000 people who are hard of hearing.
Most importantly, the Revd Jennifer McWhirter, who is also Church of Ireland Chaplain to the deaf, suggests that parishes can help address deafness and hearing loss by considering the following practical measures:
Installing a loop system in our churches, making sure they are regularly checked, and ensuring they are switched on during services. There is nothing more frustrating than struggling to hear during a service and then finding out the loop system wasn’t switched on either because the churchwarden forgot, or didn’t think to do it! As part of this, also making sure that those leading the service remember to use the microphone.
Using a screen. While it is acknowledged that not every parish has a screen in church, nor wants one, where there is one, it is a great help to someone who is deaf if the service is put up on the screen. They can then follow where you are in the service.
If clergy and people know that there is a parishioner who is profoundly deaf and uses sign language, learning a few signs to be able to say hello and ask them how they are shows that you care.
If you are holding a special service (e.g. baptism, wedding or funeral) and know there will be sign language using deaf people attending then employ the services of an interpreter. This helps deaf people be completely involved with the service, which again shows consideration. (In Northern Ireland the Revd Jennifer McWhirter can help with this.)
Download a PDF with some information on deafness here.