Deaf awareness training in association with Signpost Productions

As part of the Your life at work strand, we are offering training aimed at sharing workplace best practice as well as how you and your teams can stay healthy, happy, and productive at work. 

One in five adults in the UK have some form of hearing loss. Yet how many people can say they fully understand the needs of a deaf person? How reflective are productions in the engagement of both deaf cast and crew? Deaf Awareness Training is a great way to give you the confidence to not only create a more inclusive work environment for your staff, but also have a greater understanding of the needs of deaf talent and contributors in productions.

The course is run by a native British Sign Language user who is deaf and provides a safe environment to ask all the questions you may have been too afraid to. You will have a better awareness of some of the challenges deaf people experience when trying to communicate with hearing people, and you will be able to think of things you can do to make your production more inclusive. 

Who it's for

This course is for production professionals working in animation, film and television (high-end, unscripted, animation and children's) who wish to make their environment more inclusive and deaf friendly. These sessions have been tailored to be production-specific, giving you insights from deaf broadcast professionals on what it is like to be deaf in the media industry and providing you with insighsts and things you can do to be more inclusive.

If you work in Unscripted TV and are interested in other training aimed at sharing workplace best practice as well as how you and your teams can stay healthy, happy, and productive at work, check out the ‘Your life at work’ strand.

Trainer

Gillian Harrison is an on-screen presenter and diversity lead with Signpost Productions, which is part of ITV. Gillian is deaf and has helped a host of broadcasters and production companies with Deaf Awareness Training. Most recently Gillian worked as an advisor with the production team at Coronation Street, helping them develop a British Sign Language storyline and providing Deaf Awareness training to the cast and crew. 

This session is supported by the ScreenSkills Animation Skills Fund, Children's TV Skills Fund, Film Skills Fund, High-end TV Skills Fund, and Unscripted TV Skills Fund.

This session will take place online via Zoom. Click ‘apply for ticket’ and follow the instructions to apply for your place: you must login or register before you are able to complete your application.

If you are no longer able to use your ticket, we ask you to please contact USF@screenskills.com so that we can release your place. Our sessions are often oversubscribed, so we’d like to give others the opportunity to fill available spots. Thank you for your consideration.

We are committed to ensuring all our courses are accessible to everyone. This course is designed to be as interactive as possible. Please email the above address if you have any access requirements and we will be delighted to help, be that clarifying the form such interaction is likely to take or discussing reasonable adjustments.

This course would normally cost participants to attend, but thanks to funding from the above mentioned skills funds, we are able to offer it to you for free. If you fail to attend, we reserve the right to request reimbursement of costs, unless your place can be taken by someone else.