Member Article

DSN offers advent treat with festive sign language

A digital advent calendar using daily videos to demonstrate festive words in sign language will be launched by the Deafness Support Network (DSN) on December 1.

As the service provider for deaf people in Cheshire and the surrounding areas, DSN decided to give an insight into British Sign Language this Christmas by making videos showing words and phrases specific to Yuletide. A new video will be shared on DSN’s official Twitter and Facebook channels each day.

According to research by the National Deaf Children’s Society, 61% of people feel embarrassed they can’t communicate well with deaf people and wish they could do better.

By introducing sign language in a fun way throughout advent DSN hopes to encourage those people to come forward and learn more about how to effectively communicate with those who have hearing loss.

All signed by BSL trainer Lisa Birtles, there will be a video every day of December in the run-up to Christmas on Twitter (@DSNonline) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/DeafnessSupportNetwork) showing how to sign a new festive word or phrase.

“It doesn’t matter if you have just started learning sign language, if you have been signing for some time or if you have never even seen someone signing before,” said Gill Reeder, Executive Operations Manager of DSN.

“We hope this little advent treat will jog peoples memory on some of the words we only use at Christmastime and help them to begin to understand some of what they see if they do meet someone who signs.

“But we also would like this to encourage those who would like to know more about communicating using sign language to get in touch with us. We provide training courses certified by the Institute of British Sign Language and can let you know what is happening in your area.”

Details of courses across Cheshire can be found on the DSN website, www.dsnonline.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by deWinter PR .