Beyond Silence
"Beyond Silence” is the theme for Deaf Awareness Week, May 5th - 11th 2025. The emphasis is on breaking down barriers, promoting accessibility, and celebrating the contributions of Deaf individuals and the Deaf community. It is also an opportunity to promote awareness and understanding around being Deaf/hard of hearing.
Asha – Registered Deaf Nurse intstagram.com/justmecameil
Video source: National Deaf Children’s Society
Asha explains: It was real privilege to be invited to join this campaign. It’s so important for Deaf children…to know that they can achieve whatever they set their minds to.
Sound matters
I qualified as teacher of Deaf children and young people a decade ago and now work as an educational sound therapist consumed with all things sound and listening. I am currently reading: SOUND A story of hearing lost and found by Bella Bathurst.
This book tells the experiences of a young woman who lost – and then regained – her hearing and reveals an insight into what it means to live with and without sound.
“This is a moving and fascinating book about what it means to be human ”
“A book to remind us to treasure the gift of sound ”
Listen
Dame Evelyn Glennie, solo percussionist, composer, double GRAMMY winner, BAFTA nominee, and multiple world music prize winner (www.evelyn.co.uk) lost her hearing as a girl and grew up to become a world-famous musician.
© Caroline Purday. Photograph of Dame Evelyn Glennie at Horniman Museum.
In her children’s book ‘Listen – how a Deaf girl changed percussion’ (2022, publisher Puffin - buy here) – Dame Evelyn tells her story of music through the themes of obstacles, strength, hard work and ultimately finding your own way to listen.
In the following video extract from the webinar 'Managing hearing loss as a musician' hosted by The Independent Society of Musicians Trust (ISM Trust), Dame Evelyn talks about how she ‘re-tuned’ her whole body to be a giant walking antenna / ear, after her music teacher asked her “Where can you feel that sound in your body?”
But what I could get was actually the feeling of that sound through my hand as I put my hands on the wall. Now that was a complete and utter revelation, because bit by bit of course you know the journey has always been about opening the body up as like a huge ear. Trying to distribute the sound through the entire body, as opposed to trying to decipher it through the ear.
Video extract from YolanDa Brown OBE interviewing Dame Evelyn Glennie for the BBC Proms in Castle Coole, Northern Ireland for BBC Four. View here
Deaf Awareness Week is an annual event that aims to raise awareness about the Deaf community, their language, culture and history. See more here: British Deaf Association BDA
Deaf Awareness Week is a time to promote understanding of the barriers faced by Deaf and hard of hearing people.
