Accessibility Consultancy Service
My name is Stephen Hurley, I am the founder of SHBSL. Initially we set this business up to teach BSL. I have over 20 years experience in teaching in various settings - Adult Education, Schools, Business, Communities and Charities. As part of teaching BSL we also established ourselves as market leaders in Deaf Awareness training.
Deaf Awareness involves exploring lipreading and other strategies used by the Deaf community as well as providing a tool kit, such as some basic British Sign Language vocabulary, to enable your staff to express themselves in simple terms.
Over the years a gap has been identified for an Accessibility Consultancy service for businesses, hospitality venues, medical centres and community organisations, as well as charities and those in the voluntary sector.
While Deaf Awareness for all the staff and personnel is a great start, a generic audit of the facility and accessibility for any Deaf users is also essential for a positive and inclusive experience.
An audit is an approved certification of your Accessibility as an organisation and allows you to advertise your service or place of work as being Certified in Deaf Access and Inclusion.
This means that a check list is completed in conjunction with yourselves and a visual check of your facilities is completed. Recommendations may be made, signposting and resources will be provided as well as advice on any adaptations that you could provide and so on. More information is provided on this service on request as it is often tailored to the type of organisation – be it medical or hospitality, for example.
We are keen to have nominated “Champions” in Deaf Awareness and Accessibility as this encourages an accountability and ongoing commitment to this topic.
As a Deaf Consultant I offer expertise in the field of reasonable adjustments that can be made for any existing or potential Deaf members of staff or personnel:
- I have a background in working with Assistive Technology as a Technical Resource Officer
- Also many years working within an Adult Social Service environment.
- I have worked within Education settings with both adults and children.
- I have trained organisations and businesses extensively in the field of Deaf Awareness both locally and on behalf of a national charity.
- Many years working with Community Development with a Local Authority.
- Offered advice, support and signposting within all my previous roles and have a comprehensive data base and network to draw on.
As a Deaf Consultant I can offer not only an audit of your premises and services, providing you with a Certificate of Accessibility but also further training for representatives of your organisation.
Deaf Accessibility and Inclusion Champions are an exciting new development that we have recently added to our services. We train workshops of selected representatives from various fields and offer an opportunity for networking as well as learning for your team members. We suggest you nominate one or two of your personnel to come along to our training.
Become a “Deaf Accessibility and Inclusion Champion” with SHBSL
For more information, contact our team at SHBSL
