How to be more deaf friendly – from making eye contact to learning to sign

Jessica Kirkness grew up with her deaf grandparents living next door. Here she explains what hearing people can do to make deaf people’s lives easier

Most people have never met a deaf person. I know this because everyone I ever bring home, whether friends or partners, encounters deafness for the first time when introduced to my Nanny and Grandpa. Both of my grandparents are profoundly deaf, and I grew up in the house next door to them – raised in the space between deaf and hearing cultures and languages.

My grandparents use British Sign Language (BSL) and English to communicate. They’re part of a proud linguistic and cultural minority group, with a robust circle of peers they met at deaf clubs and schools for the deaf in the West Midlands.

Jessica Kirkness with Nanny and Grandpa