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4-7 year olds
8-11 year olds
Deaf Community Members
Signed
Stories
Deaf community in Northern Ireland
The Covid-19 pandemic led us into lockdown life – one that was lonely and fraught with anxiety about our changed lives. The BDA wanted to alleviate this by creating stories in sign language that were nothing to do with the pandemic and which people of different ages could enjoy.
We were the only Deaf organisation to receive funding from the National Emergencies Trust via Disability Action in NI to produce these stories in 2021. We are very proud of how popular these videos have been both in Northern Ireland and beyond as people around the world have looked in on our Deaf stories, lives and history in Northern Ireland.
The different stories cover a wide range of topics which were designed for three groups – 4-7 year olds, 8-11 year olds, and, Deaf Community members. Click on the tab for the group which most interests you and see the stories within. By the way, you don’t have to be of a particular age to view these - they’re open to all!
The stories for the 4-7 and 8-11 age groups have in-vision captions so that all of the Deaf child’s family could enjoy them. The Deaf Community stories – with the exception of Eamon’s fascinating account of school life at Jordanstown School for Deaf Children in Belfast – do not have captions. The aim was to enable Deaf people to enjoy these stories in the same way they would when meeting with their families and friends – in sign language.
This project was also wonderful for the opportunity to present the huge pool of talent that exists within Northern Ireland’s Deaf Community. With restrictions on our movements due to the pandemic, the Deaf presenters were supplied with a topic, a script in English and a sample of this in sign language which they then filmed and, in some cases, even edited! Their creativity and ingenuity far exceeded the brief they were given and they should be very proud of their work, as we are of them.
