|
Derbyshire ‘talks the talk’ |
|
|
|
|
Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service’s South Area Community Fire Safety Team is learning to ‘talk the talk’ by taking a sign language training course in a bid to help them communicate with people in Derby who are deaf or hard of hearing. Lynne Grayson said: “We started the training as it is estimated that the deaf and hard of hearing population in Derby is at least three times higher than the national average, and that only London has a larger population! “We believe this is due to the fact that many deaf people are relocating to Derby because of the Royal School for the Deaf and the strong sign-language-using community that exists here.
“Community fire safety staff attend many home fire safety checks where the occupants are deaf and we currently work with the Deaf Team from Derby who provide interpreters for us. We wanted to be able to communicate directly with this community, so we started learning British Sign Language Level One in November 2006. We have just passed the first unit of the course and have two more units to pass before we have a qualification.”
|
