Sensory Awareness

The need

• Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Blind and Deafblind people all over Yorkshire and the surrounding Region are now more independent than ever without the need for helpers.
• Unfortunately many people with sensory loss find services difficult to access; not because of their own sensory loss but, because of the lack of knowledge of the service providers.
• Simple changes in the way services are delivered can mean a person with a sensory loss can determine their future for themselves. All the service providers need is, the right education delivered by people who have experience of sensory loss so the necessary and simple changes can be made.

The impact

• The impact of the training would be that people with sensory loss will not need the support of helpers but can independently access services in a more empowered way.
• Companies and organizations will be enabled to provide a better service to a hard-to-reach segment of the community, while adding value to their business proposition.

The gaps in provision

• There are gaps in this essential knowledge in every sector of society. Public bodies and private companies, as well as voluntary and charitable Third Sector organizations, all fail to provide an equal service to people who have a sensory loss when compared to a hearing/sighted person.
• If the gap is consistent across sectors then the area of focus should be determined by the impact of lack of services.
• In this situation, commercial companies that have “life-impact” should be as big a priority as public bodies delivering health services, housing, justice, and services essential for life.

The barriers

• Currently the major barrier to organizations accessing this training is their lack of awareness: at the moment, “many service providers do not know what they do not know”.
• The second barrier is the economic downturn. Commercial service providers are less inclined to invest in sensory awareness training and public sector bodies have less money to spend.
• This all means that Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Blind, the Visually Impaired and DeafBlind people are not getting adequate access to services they need to live as independently as possible.

An outline brief of Courses that CoHearentVision can deliver:

Sensory Impairment Courses

Communication Tactics

This page was created on: October 30, 2009 and last modified on February 23rd, 2010 at 16:56.