Conservative Win Should Not Be Green Light To Persecute Deaf People

With the Conservative Party pulling off an election result that has shocked the pollsters, many people throughout the UK will be turning their thoughts today to what this will mean for them. Having personally seen and felt the extent of the cuts inflicted upon deaf people over the last 5 years when the Liberal Democrats shared office to cast scrutiny over the Conservative direction, future cuts are a significant concern for lots of deaf people.

In addition to the cuts, the last five years have seen little progress in dealing with some of central issues that need to be addressed to give more deaf people a better chance in the work place in the future.

Given a political mandate more through concern about the alternatives than an endorsement of the Conservative policies, we call on the new Government to wake up to the needs of the deaf community and to address some of the issues that inflict life-limiting outcomes for many deaf people and their families.

Here at SLFirst we would like to see more of the Deaf jobs being undertaken by Deaf people. We would like to see more deaf leaders and deaf workers in organisations that receive funding to champion deaf issues. We would also like to see more deaf people doing the jobs that teach the deaf language, deaf awareness or deaf people.

Getting more deaf people into work will require a series of changes, including better teaching for deaf children in school and colleges so that they are able to achieve the academic results that their intellect deserves. We need to see extensive compliance with the 'reasonable adjustment' requirement of equality legislation so that deaf people are not discriminated against in the jobs market.

We need the new Government to understand that deaf people have the same dreams and aspirations as everyone else. When mainstream jobs discriminate against us, we use our creative skills to seek self employment, but we need support to give us equality when competing with mainstream businesses and clients. We need our small micro businesses to be nurtured, supported and encouraged, we need your help for us to be empowered in the work place.

Over the last 5 years, it has sometimes felt that the opposite has been the case. Our call is for this Conservative Government to improve its understanding of deaf and other disabled people. What we don't need is an attack on our best intentions, our endeavour, our dreams and aspirations. Persecuting deaf people will simply show us you are bullies, picking on the meek and mild, the people least able to defend themselves. 

We need to feel empowered not beaten down, and with the right support deaf people can flourish in British society and we can show everyone that DeafCanDo!!