Record number of people helped by Cambridgeshire Deaf Association in last year

The CDA helps deaf and hard of hearing people in the county through advocacy, support, personal care and social and sports activities and last year there was a huge surge in demand for their services, with almost 900 requests for support and almost 300 calls for help with professional advocacy.

People contacting the service needed help and advice with benefits, education and a number of social issues and the CDA also had to cope with an increasing number of domestic violence cases against deaf women during the first part of the pandemic.

Much of the work had to be carried out remotely, due to Covid restrictions and many of those seeking help took advantage of the new ‘contact line’ service which allows people to easily book time with staff online.

Andrew Palmer, Chief Executive of the CDA, said: ”I want to pay tribute to the local police commissioner, the councils and our donors for funding our services to be able to support people; but the truth is that many organisations out there could support deaf people without us, but can’t, because they’re not accessible.

“That’s because either they don’t have budget for communication support like interpreters or they don’t have information which is available a British sign language and that puts pressure on our services. In many cases they may just need more information about how to be more ‘deaf aware’ and make their services accessible. We’re here to help any service provider provide equal access to deaf people.”

Now that pandemic is hopefully coming to an end in the UK Andrew wants all parties involved in providing services to think about how they can come together and increase accessibility for deaf people in the county.

“It’s the perfect time for people that provide services to the general public to think about how they might want to adjustments to make themselves accessible to deaf people. The deaf community is a minority group in the UK like many others and they also face routine discrimination on a daily basis with very little mainstream media interest. I hope that we can help improve their peoples sense of equality and we don’t keep having record numbers of deaf people looking for support.”