Deaf Awareness Training

This course has been developed in collaboration with Deaf Communities across Wales to increase health care workers’ understanding of the world of Deaf and Hard of hearing patients and to improve health services.

Did you know that more than 16% of the UK population is Hard of hearing or Deaf?  That could be your next patient.

Deaf and Hard of hearing people are often at a disadvantage when they want to engage in health and care services and most health and care staff have had little Deaf awareness training, and don’t know how best to communicate with Deaf people.

The risk of an error or misunderstandings lead to low satisfaction with health services among Deaf and Hard of hearing patients.

We have developed and tailored the course for you because you are working in a health or care setting or studying a health/care programme. Maybe you have met Deaf or hard of hearing patients already or would like to know more about what to do when you work with Deaf people.

Through this course you will learn more about:

• Types of deafness
• Deaf culture
• Barriers to communication
• How poor experiences in healthcare affect deaf and hard of hearing people
• How you can improve your communication skills with Deaf people
• The role of a British Sign Language (BSL) Interpreter

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

• Communicate effectively with people who are Deaf or hard of hearing
• Examine the impact of deafness and being hard of hearing
• Identify access issues that Deaf and hard-of-hearing people experience in health services and work to reduce these barriers

Course structure and completion

The course is structured in 3 main sections, and each section contains activities related to the main course. The content includes watching video clips (use a fullscreen view if possible), reading texts and participating in interactive pages.

The completion of the whole course should take between 2 to 3 hours as a maximum.

At the end of each section, you will be presented with a summary and a short formative quiz.

You are required to complete the final quiz to obtain a certificate of completion. More information on completion and certificate are available on the related page.