by Kay Huxham, Local Preacher in the York North Circuit

RecentlyI attended a day conference entitled ‘Deaf & Hearing Together’which was hosted by the King’s Centre in Halifax.  It was aboutchurches being inclusive, and focussing on the problems of deafpeople.  There was a good mixture of deaf and hearing peoplethere, and they came from several different denominations.  It wasled by one of the Deaf Chaplains for West Yorkshire dioceses.  Alot of the discussion might be helpful to Local Preachers.

Wehad discussion groups and a feedback session in the morning. Hearing people reported that they found trying to include the deaf wasdaunting – they were not used to what they were seeing and hearing; andalso the fact that Deaf Culture is so completely different.  Wemake efforts to accommodate blind people, or the physicallyhandicapped, but Deaf people are a silent minority who can easily beoverlooked.  They cope with the sitting and standing because theyare alert to visual clues.  Their problems may not be so obvious,and the result is that they feel completely left out.

Stepswere suggested to make worship more accessible to Deaf or Hard ofHearing People: The use of pictures, (downloads), maps, diagrams andwords on the OHP (especially jargon which needs to be explained, e.g.‘repentance’, confession’, ‘forgiveness’, ‘resurrection’), and alsonames & places.

Deaf people said that they wanted more than ACCESS: they wantedINCLUSION.  They need to sit at the front in order to see. Speakers should speak slower and much more distinctly.  Thereshould be light on the speaker, so that their face can be seen. The use of body language gives deaf people more clues.  They needtime to find the pages in a book (Bible, Hymnbook, Prayer book). The vocabulary of Deaf People is much more limited, and hard wordsshould be avoided.  The meaning of songs is not at all clear tothem: it goes over their heads.  The Gospel reading is alsosometimes at too high a level.  (There is a Deaf Bibleavailable.)  Preachers need to stick to the subject, or DeafPeople easily get confused.  It is really helpful to have deafpreachers occasionally, or an interpreter present for those who use BSLas their first language.  Deaf people have never seen the churchas really inclusive.

We discussed the contribution that Deaf People bring to the Church,saying that they bring liveliness, a lot of facial and otherexpression.  Visual services are particularly appropriate whendeaf people are present, but they benefit everybody.  Signing thesongs can make them more meaningful for hearing people too.  1 in7 of the population has some degree of hearing loss.

Weare one in the Body of Christ and each has a gift, each person isunique. If deaf people are missing from a congregation, that group isdeprived of their unique contribution.  The deaf people add anextra dimension.

After lunch we split intogroups again: a children and young people’s group, drama, signingsongs, dance, and creativity.  Each group produced an item thatwas used in a joyful Celebration Service later in the evening.