Sign Language in society: The social isolation of the deaf community.

Over the first lockdown I signed up for a British sign language course, to try and teach myself the basics, and whilst doing it, I realised what an important skill it is, for everyone.

At school, we were forced to learn a language like French or Spanish, which despite enjoying, I would have much preferred to learn sign language and I also think it would have been more beneficial. The deaf community is estimated to be around 9 million people in the UK, meaning you are quite likely to bump into someone who is deaf in your lifetime. As useful as foreign languages are, they are becoming less and less necessary because of other countries being almost fluent in our language. In addition, the use of translators is meaning it is less necessary to learn foreign languages. The chances of us having to speak a foreign language in the UK are a lot lower than having to use sign language, but only 151,000 people in the UK know how to use it, 87,000 of which are deaf themselves. This means that less than 0.3% of the UK can communicate with deaf people via sign language.

Being deaf can be extremely isolating. Not being able to fully communicate with people makes you feel out of touch with reality. You can easily feel left out by not being involved in communication. When you are deaf, your other senses get hightend which can put people constantly on edge make them very anxious and self conscious. For a deaf person, seeing someone use sign language to communicate with them can be extremely comforting as they feel included. We can so easily prevent this barrier and allow deaf people with more connections and opportunities by simply including it in the education system. Of course, the majority of the UK is past the education system and it can take years to learn, however, if we teach the school generation now, in the future we will have fewer communication barriers.

Not only will it allow more people to be included in conversations, and develop a life skill, using sign language in the classroom also has many learning benefits. Firstly using sign language can help to establish and develop trust and builds social skills. It helps with team building as you are all working together and helping one another learn, and this can increase happiness and harmony in the classroom. On top of this it allows for so many opportunities that they would not have gotten beforehand and learning sign language allows for a creative learning opportunity, which allows children to think in abstract ways, expand thier mindsets, and find a new and fun way to learn things. Really there aren't any limitations or drawbacks to children learning sign language.

For those born deaf, their only means of communication is sign language and it shows why it is so important that people learn it. For people who can only use sign language, the everyday activities becomes extremely hard. Going to the shops and not being able to communicate with the cashier is a huge problem for so many but, it still goes unnoticed and nobody decides to act on it. For people with able communication, we do not think about this issue which occurs with even the most simple tasks.

Sign language became an official language in 2003, however, since then schools have failed at entering it into the curriculum, which leaves deaf people behind in not only socialisation but also education. Our society would benefit greatly if more people learned it as a divide would be closed and a sense of unity would be created between the deaf and the abled hearing. This would massively help deaf people in everyday life feel included and which would benefit their mental wellbeing.

I strongly urge people to try and teach themselves the basics of sign language, even if it is just a simple hello. It's time to make a change.