Lakeside Village Deaf Aware

The wall, based in the indoor play area at the centre, comes after Lakeside Village was given an official Deaf Aware stamp by Doncaster Deaf Trust for their work in becoming Deaf Aware.
Centre manager, David Aunins, said: “We are really proud of our Deaf Awareness stamp following our Deaf Awareness training from Doncaster Deaf Trust. Working with the Trust we have realised that there are lots of things that people can do to become Deaf
“Having a wall in our indoor play area with the British Sign Language (BSL) alphabet on it will encourage our younger visitors to try and spell their own name and hopefully learn the alphabet which would then enable them to spell out any word to help them communicate with someone who is
“We are also challenging the teams in our stores to give it a go and see if they can spell out the name of their store and a number of key shopping words and phrases.
“Each year the pupils from Doncaster School for the Deaf visit us at Christmas and sign Christmas Carols, we’d love to be able to join in with them this year!”
During Deaf Awareness Week pupils and students at the Trust said that they’d like to see more people in the town becoming Deaf Aware and Lakeside Village took up the challenge.
Bobbie Roberts, chair of Trustees at Doncaster Deaf Trust said: “The BSL alphabet wall at Lakeside is a lovely way to encourage children to learn to sign.“Simple things like being able to share their name will also get them to think about how Deaf people communicate.
“It is fantastic to see organisations working with us in this way to help to make Doncaster a Deaf Aware town.”
For further information about Doncaster Deaf Trust visit www.deaf-trust.co.uk and for further information about Lakeside Village visit www.lakeside-village.co.uk