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.

The majority of our online short course offering is for those at early career stage and above. As a result, we generally require applicants to have at least 3 credits (unless working in a traditionally uncredited role or production studio role). If you strongly feel you would still benefit from the training, please email USF@screenskills.com so we can assess if an exception should be made.

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.

How to apply

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

If you need additional support to complete your application or require the application form in an alternative format please contact USF@screenskills.com

Places on these free online courses are limited and applications are often highly competitive. To stand the best chance of securing a place, please be sure to consider the following:

• When asked to list your three most recent credits, please include the programme title and your job role.
• When asked what you hope to gain from the course, please be concise but ensure you cover the specific elements of the topic you would like to gain knowledge of and what gaps in your skillset you believe the course may address. A rewording of the course title or a general comment on career progression does not tell us much about how this course would benefit you.

If you are no longer able to attend, we ask you to please use the “decline ticket” function on the right hand side of the page so that we can release your place. Our sessions are often oversubscribed, so we’d like to give other freelancers the opportunity to fill available spots. Thank you for your consideration.

This course is supported by ScreenSkills, by the Unscripted TV Skills Fund thanks to contributions from broadcasters, SVoDs and production companies.

This course would normally cost participants to attend, but thanks to this support, 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.