Why Deaf Schools are important.

Mainstream schools are not made for us.

I thought that perhaps for my Newsletter, I will tell you all a little bit about me. Many of you already know I’m profoundly deaf and I wear two hearing aids.

But you don’t know about how difficult it is for deaf kids in mainstream schools. We struggle every single day. We have to work so hard to change ourselves to try and fit in with the society. We have to break down barriers everyday that hearing people put up. We have to remind people that yes we can’t hear, but we can do things that hearing people do, just in a different way. We have to fight against discrimination all of the time and it is exhausting.

Imagine having to live in a world not made for you.

This is why Deaf Schools and the Deaf Community are so important to me. I have close deaf friends who are like family to me. It is because we stick our necks out for each other, and we all understand the struggles we face together everyday.

But you probably don’t realise that Deaf Schools keep getting shut down.

In the 1980s, there were about 75 Deaf Schools across the UK. This is amazing. And British Sign Language was allowed in these schools especially after the 1970s when BSL was recognised as a language in its own right.

And now, many years later, there are only 22 Deaf Schools…

This is pure madness. It is wrong. It should have increased rather than go down. This is thanks to the Government. For many years, they cut council funds to Deaf Schools, thinking that it is better for deaf children to go to mainstream hearing schools. THEY, the hearing grown-ups thought that they knew what was right for deaf children.

I wanted to raise awareness for this wrong justice being done to the Deaf Community. We deserve to keep our Deaf Schools. We deserve the education curated and designed to fit our language needs. Instead we are being shoved into a smaller box to meet the needs of hearing people.

As a deaf person who grew up in the mainstream world, I know what it can be like for deaf kids.

Growing up in the quiet and peaceful countryside of North Devon, I was exposed to so much nature and wilderness. I lived in a tiny village with a primary school of only 40 kids and the nearest shop in the next town of 15 minutes drive away. I lived in a house right next to a beautiful forest. I was lucky to have such a beautiful place to have my childhood in. But it was not easy as the only deaf child in the area.

My first primary school was over an hour drive away, but it was the only school I could go to that had a deaf unit. It was here at this school I made my first deaf best friend, and we were so close. It was like us two little girls against the whole wide world. We never left each other alone in the school playgrounds. We never stopped backing each other up against bullies. We never failed to stop making each other laugh.

Then my friend moved away, and my life started to get greyer. I started to realise I was different because there was no other deaf child my age I could make friends with. I tried so hard to fit in with other kids in my classroom and they could not understand me. It was at this point I started to pick up more of speaking to try and fit in with the society.

My parents moved me away from this school to be nearer, because I was returning grumpier and more exhausted each day. I started getting much happier at the local primary school. It was a lot smaller, more friendly kids, and teachers that cared. I was much happier, but still I completely dropped my signing to fit in with my peers. Throughout my life growing up, I was constantly on the guard, trying to catch everything people were saying around me. Hearing teenagers love to talk fast, whisper or shout over each other and it made me exhausted by the end of each day.

I had little understanding of depression back then, and I was getting close to the clutches of this mental illness. But I was lucky enough to have a precious close-knit of best friends in school that gave me a bit of happiness everyday. It was this group of friends I lived my life in school with, we always stayed together, backing each other up, being there for each other.

This was my life till I turned 17 when I got the opportunity to go to a Deaf School for A-Levels and my life changed forever for the good. I missed my lovely close-knit best friends, but it was the first time I started feeling so much happier and content with my own identity. It was the first time in my life I realised I could do anything. This was the place I found people like me, people I could count on to understand.

At this school, I became the most confident people ever knew me as. My eyes were opened up to an entire wonderful new world: the Deaf world. In this world, I was with people who I didn’t have to struggle to understand or try to change myself. For the first time in my life, I became content and proud of my deaf identity. From this onwards, I never again wished to be born hearing again.

At the school, I also met my forever partner who I will be getting married to this year. I found my entire happy future by going to this one Deaf School. And I cannot imagine how dark and difficult my life would have been if I stayed in a mainstream school.

And this is why I will always defend and support the precious Deaf Schools we have left.

Well… This was intense to write! I didn’t write this to make you readers feeling sorry for me, I wanted the opposite of that, I wanted to make you realise it is okay to be different.

I wanted to help open up some eyes and allow people understand why Deaf Schools are important. So if you ever hear about a local Deaf School being in trouble, please give them whatever support you can give. Raise awareness for that school through social media. Change people’s minds if they say deaf kids belong in mainstream schools. Vote for a government that actually cares (hint: not the Tories).

In 2022 I had the wonderful opportunity of working on a picture book with the Paddleboat Theatre group and the Deaf Academy which is in Exmouth, Devon. They hired me as their illustrator on a book called “The Amazing History of the Deaf Academy” which you can order here.

I had so much fun illustrating this book as it was very personal and close to my heart as well. It highlighted a lot of important parts in Deaf History which are so fascinating to learn about. Did you know, in 1880, the Milan Conference banned sign language across the world? Yes, shocking, right? There are so many other wild things that has happened in the past which you can learn about in this book.

Here are some spreads from the book:

You can buy the book to learn more about Deaf History. It would mean so much to the Deaf community if more people become interested in our history and join us to battle against discrimination and life/career barriers.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. It’s important to keep hearing disabled voices and not allow our voices be silenced. It’s important for us all to support each other.

I will be sharing more of this book on my Instagram next week, so keep an eye out.

Have a lovely day,

Lucy x