Thursday 15 March 2012

Confidence and the changes to the Equality Act...

At quarter to seven this morning I woke up and read an email which has made my day brighten - despite the looming Psychology timed essay question...

The email was from one of the girls in my youth group; although one of the eldest she's always been painfully quiet, only really getting involved with the few of us she knows really well. But the last few months all that has changed! She's volunteered to be our committee secretary, dived in to the activities and this morning I've found out why. She's learnt to Sign.

It's a bit silly really - I should have noticed that she'd started joining in with us "signers". And now she's gone one step further than any of us would dare - she's entered the Worcestershire Poetry Slam with a poem about being Deaf, in BSL. Proud doesn't really cover it to be honest. I'm over the moon for her, chuffed to bits!! And we'll be there every single step of the way, cheering and supporting her - she'd better win!

In other news I've also been jumping up and down in joy about the Government changes to the Equality Act. The changes relate to auxiliary aids (things like radio aids and note-takers) and the Government has decided that these should now be provided within school as reasonable adjustments. Its an amazing win, especially for the huge number of deaf children and young people who don't have a statement of educational needs. The best thing is that it's mainly down to NDCS and their campaign which resulted in over 700 replies to a Government consultation. You can read all about it here.

Today is News Day all over the UKand our school are getting involved too - I'm so happy about all the changes to the Equality Act that I've decided to write an article about it.... I'll keep you updated!

No comments:

Post a Comment