Simon explains a day in his life and the barriers he faces; his trip to the shops, his barriers with supermarket staff, and finally meeting someone who he can communicate with in his own language.
In this video, Simon, walks us through a typical day in his life. He talks about the barriers he faces when trying to communicate with hearing people who don’t understand British Sign Language (BSL).
Video transcript:
Arrive town and getting off bus, sudden lots of hearing people surround me
Walking through crowded people
I see people chatting each other.
I see people laughing on the phone.
I see people listening music.
In big shop with lots of aisle and I’m looking for batteries.
I ask staff who working on shelf, but she doesn’t understand my sign
“I’m sorry I don’t understand you I can’t sign”
I keep looking around but can’t find batteries so I write text on my phone, showed to a different staff with mask on. I wouldn’t understand staff because staff was speaking me with mask on and she won’t remove mask. When I moved back in 2 metres and asked her to remove mask when she speaks to me but staff refused to remove mask
On queue in tills and someone tried to conversation to me I told someone that I’m deaf and they said oh never mind…I even tried to keep that conversation going but they’re put off
That is everyday of my life…
On bus, my day got brighten up when someone waved at me and sign to me because it’s rare to meet someone who same language as me and others out there.
