Members of the deaf community have influenced a decision to rename a local support education service.
Nationally, the British Association of Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People and professionals who work with deaf children and young people are supporting the move towards the use of more positive terminology around deafness. The Hearing Impairment Service will now be called the Support Service for d/Deaf Children and Young People.
The word ‘deaf’ is used to refer to all levels of deafness, including unilateral deafness. This decision was made following collaboration with d/Deaf and hearing parents, deaf children and young people and professionals in the Children’s Hearing Services Working group. The names of clinics in the south east Wales region will no longer use ‘hearing impaired’ and specialist resource bases in Nant Celyn Primary and Cwmbran High School will now be referred to as d/Deaf Resource Bases.
