How Deaf people were affected by the pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic had a huge impact on the world, but you may not have considered how it specifically impacted Deaf people. 

A major issue throughout the pandemic was access to information. A great deal of information released by the government was not accessible to Deaf people due to a lack of information in British Sign Language (BSL), and interpreters were not provided for Government announcements. This led to a campaign called “Where is the interpreter?”. I saw coronavirus mentioned in the newspapers, but I didn’t fully understand what was going on; the risks and how to protect myself. Before the first lockdown, I continued to teach BSL, but my classes grew smaller because students didn’t feel comfortable attending face-to-face. It wasn’t until I saw information from the Royal Association for the Deaf (RAD) that I understood the real impact. 

When I realised that teaching face-to-face was no longer going to be possible during lockdown, I had to adapt my teaching to deliver courses online on Zoom. I had to split my group of 12 into two groups of six in order to manage them online. It also took longer than normal, as we finished the course in August and not May as originally planned. It was a different way of working, but it allowed me to carry on doing what I loved and enabled me to keep my business going, although my income was seriously affected. Of course, not all of my students were happy with online lessons either, when they had originally signed up for a face-to-face class. 

A huge problem for the Deaf community during lockdowns was the intense isolation they experienced. I was very lucky that I had access to technology and could keep in contact with people online. For elderly deaf people who didn’t understand technology, Covid-19 was a very lonely experience. Many people of this age were used to engaging with the Deaf community at various activities such as coffee mornings or bingo prior to lockdown. Having to stay at home was particularly difficult for those who lived alone. 

Lack of contact with loved ones affected people; many people longed for human contact to make them feel better, but this wasn’t allowed.

People in the neighbourhood would connect with each other and chat when going out on their doorsteps to clap for the NHS and key workers on Thursday evenings. For me, this was just as isolating, because none of my neighbours were able to communicate with me in BSL. I would usually go straight back into my house after the clapping finished. 

Many deaf people reported experiencing mental health issues during lockdown; particularly anxiety and depression. This was made worse as it was difficult to access GP appointments, as GPs stopped doing face-to-face appointments and moved to doing consultations over the phone. Also, access to interpreters for medical appointments was reported as an issue. If deaf people did manage to get a face-to-face appointment, often health professionals would be wearing masks which made it impossible to lip-read what they were saying. These communication barriers all contributed to deaf people feeling more anxious. 

The use of masks in general made lip-reading difficult for deaf people. Suddenly during the pandemic, everyone was wearing a mask that obscured their mouth and made it impossible to lip-read what they were saying. 

I was happy that the world was opening up and things were slowly getting back to normal, but still wanted to follow safety precautions and keep the risks to a minimum. I enjoyed teaching through Zoom and I realised that this may suit some people better as they had busy lives, may be vulnerable or may have commitments, such as children. It was because of this I decided to continue to offer both online and face-to-face courses so that students could learn in a way that suited them. 

Join me next time when I would be talking about my great-grandfather John Hill.