Event will give attendees ‘opportunity to pose questions about deaf and disability issues’

Deaf and disabled voters in Peterborough are being invited to attend a special election debate this week.

The aim of the June 27 event – which has been organised by Cambridgeshire Deaf Association (CDA) – is to provide a platform for the deaf and disabled community to have their voices and concerns heard by key political candidates.

The CDA’s chief executive, Andy Palmer, believes it is vitally important that people with disabilities do not feel excluded from the democratic process:

Deaf and disabled voters in Peterborough are being invited to attend a special election debate at Allia Future Business Centre on June 27 (image: Getty)

placeholder image — Deaf and disabled voters in Peterborough are being invited to attend a special election debate at Allia Future Business Centre on June 27 (image: Getty)

“Television coverage of the general election is extensive, yet only a very small percentage is available in British Sign Language (BSL),” he said, adding:

“Many events held across the country are not accessible to people who use BSL or rely on captions to follow what is being said.”

The city centre debate will be conducted in British Sign Language (BSL), with interpretation and captions available for all those who may need them.

Candidates representing Conservative, Labour and the Liberal Democrats have all said they will be attending the event at Peterborough’s Allia Future Business Centre.

The main focus of the evening gathering will be to highlight some of the pressing issues deaf and disabled people face, alongside local concerns that affect the local community.

“The issues are broad and cover anything from hate crime, benefits, employment, the proposed changes to PIP, education, health and care,” Andy said.

“Attendees will have the opportunity to pose questions about deaf and disability issues to the candidates, helping to clarify what the major parties plan to do if elected.”

This is the second time the CDA have organised an event of this kind. The first debate, which was held in the run up to the 2019 election, proved very popular.

Andy is hoping that that this year’s event will be even more successful:

“We are excited to do it again for this election,” he said, “[and] we encourage as many people as possible to attend.”

Cambridgeshire Deaf Association’s election debate for deaf and disabled people will be held on Thursday June 27 at 6.30pm at the Allia Future Business Centre.